Maryland education officials are trying to shut down a quiet but high-stakes practice that parents say can push very young children with disabilities onto a path that rarely ends with a traditional high school diploma.
State Superintendent Carey M. Wright has proposed new regulations that would bar school IEP teams from even weighing a child’s eligibility for alternate assessments until the annual review right before third grade. Supporters say the move is meant to keep students with disabilities in general education classrooms longer and to protect their access to grade-level instruction and a standard diploma.
What the proposed rule would do
Under draft COMAR language presented by the Maryland State Department of Education, IEP teams would have to wait until the annual review just before a student’s third-grade year before formally considering participation in the Alternate Assessment aligned to alternate academic achievement standards.
In a March memo, Wright warned that locking students into that track when they are still in early elementary school can have lifelong consequences. “Determining students eligible for the Alternate Framework at a young age is inappropriate and risks predetermining educational outcomes,” she wrote.
MSDE notes in its materials that early eligibility decisions often go hand-in-hand with more restrictive placements and less access to the full curriculum. In the wonky world of special education rules, that timing decision can be the difference between a student staying in a general education classroom or spending most of the day in a separate setting.
Federal scrutiny and the 1% cap
Maryland’s move is unfolding under pressure from Washington. In a March 3 letter, the U.S. Department of Education denied the state’s request to extend a waiver of the federal 1 percent cap on alternate-assessment participation, saying Maryland had not shown enough progress in bringing numbers down.
Federal reviewers pointed to state data showing that about 1.13 percent of Maryland test-takers, roughly 5,150 students out of about 456,000, used the alternate assessment in the 2024-25 school year. The department urged the state to tighten local oversight of eligibility decisions.
The letter also left the door open for Maryland to come back with a revised waiver request that includes a clearer plan for reducing participation to the federal cap.
Families warn early labels can stick
For families, the issue is not abstract policy; it is about labels that feel like they come with no off-ramp.
As reported by The Baltimore Banner, parents described being asked to sign off on alternate-assessment placements for children as young as five. Several said they worried that agreeing at that age would quietly shut down their children’s chances at a traditional diploma years before anyone really knew what they could do.
Those fears line up with research. A 2018 report from the National Council on Disability and other studies highlight that students with disabilities tend to do better academically, socially, and behaviorally when they are taught in inclusive settings and given access to grade-level curriculum.
Where early placements are concentrated
State data attached to Maryland’s federal waiver materials show that early alternate-assessment eligibility decisions are not evenly spread. Instead, they are clustered in a handful of school systems.
Montgomery County and Prince George’s County report the biggest jumps in pre-K through second-grade placements. One table in the waiver attachment lists Montgomery County with 295 kindergarten, 155 first-grade, and 165 second-grade alternate-assessment eligibilities for 2024-25, according to MSDE’s filing with the U.S. Department of Education.
MSDE warns that many of those students are being taught in substantially separate settings. That can sharply limit chances to pursue a regular diploma later, even if a student’s skills or needs change over time.
Next steps: rulemaking and supports
MSDE brought the draft regulation to the State Board of Education on March 24, 2026, as a “permission to publish” item, a procedural step that starts the formal rulemaking process and opens the door to public comment.
The department has signaled that it does not want to drop a new rule on districts without support. Officials say they plan to pair any eligibility-timing change with training and targeted technical assistance for local systems.
According to the COMAR presentation, MSDE is lining up audits, monitoring, and professional learning to help local education agencies adjust to the new timing rules. The state plans to focus first on districts with especially high early-eligibility rates while the regulation works its way through the board process.
What to watch
If the regulation is ultimately adopted, local IEP teams will need fresh guidance and oversight to make sure practice lines up with the new timeline. Families and advocates will be watching closely to see whether more students with disabilities remain in grade-level classrooms for longer.
For more detail and district-level tables, see coverage in The Baltimore Banner and MSDE’s permission-to-publish packet.
