Over the past decade, the number of students with disabilities in American schools has exploded. In San Diego County, the trend has been particularly acute.
In 2015, La Mesa Spring Valley Schools, for example, served 1,424 students with disabilities. By 2025, that number had increased to 2,225. That striking increase came even as the number of overall students in the district dropped significantly.
Over just a few years, more than one in five students had become legally entitled to special education services in the district…