Five States Loosened Education Accountability. Struggling Readers Pay the Price.

Last updated: July 10, 2026

Something most parents of struggling readers know instinctively: schools don’t find problems they’re not required to look for. The accountability mechanisms built into federal education law — annual reading assessments, mandatory reporting on which students are falling behind — are blunt instruments, and imperfect ones. But they were the lever that forced schools to identify struggling readers early, rather than wait until third grade, fifth grade, or middle school to act.

This week, Arkansas became the fifth state to receive a federal waiver loosening those requirements. The International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition is explicit: “language and literacy support before and during the early years of education is particularly effective.” That is the science. Wait-to-fail is the system that reasserts itself when the accountability structures requiring early identification are removed. The federal floor that backed that science just got lower — in five states, with more likely to follow.

TL;DR

Arkansas is the 5th state (joining Iowa, Louisiana, Indiana, Vermont) to receive a federal education flexibility waiver that consolidates funding and simplifies accountability.
The accountability structures being loosened were designed to force early identification of struggling readers; without them, the institutional incentive to find problems early weakens.
The IDA's 2025 definition states early language and literacy support is particularly effective — the opposite direction from what these waivers move.
Simultaneously, the IDEA oversight office faces a proposed cut from 163 to 31 staff, and federal civil rights complaint pathways have been significantly reduced for all 50 states.
Ask your school before fall: how does your school identify struggling readers early, and what happens when they find one?

Five states have now received federal waivers that loosen education accountability requirements — and the assessment structures being simplified were the same ones designed to catch struggling readers before wait-to-fail sets in. Here is what parents need to know before back-to-school season.

Common questions

Does this federal waiver affect my child’s IEP or 504 plan?

The Arkansas waiver is an ESEA flexibility that changes how schools use federal funding and report on assessment results, not the legal rights guaranteed under IDEA (covering IEPs) or Section 504. Those laws are unchanged. However, the IDEA monitoring office faces dramatic proposed staff cuts, and the federal civil rights complaint pathway is significantly harder to access. Your child’s rights remain in law — enforcement is where the question mark is. A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis; if your child needs formal accommodations through an IEP or 504, a professional evaluation is the route to those supports.

What questions should I ask my child’s school about early reading identification?

Ask specifically: Does the school screen all students for reading difficulties in kindergarten and first grade? What assessment tool do you use, and what is the threshold for additional support? How quickly does that support begin? The answers tell you whether early identification is still a priority after the accountability requirements shift.

My state doesn’t have one of these waivers. Does any of this affect us?

Yes. The IDEA restructuring — moving special education oversight to HHS and civil rights enforcement to the DOJ — affects families in all 50 states. Federal OCR complaints are harder to access nationwide, and the IDEA monitoring office faces dramatic proposed staff cuts. Your state’s complaint process for IEP and 504 issues is now more often the primary recourse. Ask your school: if my child’s plan isn’t being followed, who do I contact at the state level?

Is there evidence that looser federal accountability leads to worse outcomes for struggling readers?

The NCLB waiver era (2011 to 2015) gave states flexibility from federal accountability requirements, and researchers found mixed results — some states maintained early identification, while others quietly reduced it. The IDA’s 2025 definition makes clear what direction the science demands: early identification and early support. Whether a given state uses new flexibility to strengthen or weaken that early floor is the question parents should ask their schools directly.

5 states loosened federal education accountability. The IDA's 2025 definition says early intervention is what the science demands. These two facts point in opposite directions. Parents: ask your school these questions before fall. Tweet Now Follow Learning Success

What Arkansas just received

On July 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education approved Arkansas’ “Returning Education to the States” waiver, making Arkansas the fifth state — after Iowa, Louisiana, Indiana, and Vermont — to receive this package of federal flexibilities. The waiver consolidates four federal funding streams into one block, redirecting $8.8 million over four years. Arkansas also became the 21st state, a record, to receive Ed-Flex authority: the power to waive specific federal requirements for local school districts without seeking prior approval from Washington.

Under the waiver, Arkansas can simplify its education accountability system. Advanced students in grades five and six can now take high school-level assessments in place of their grade-level reading and math tests, and the same flexibility extends to reading/language arts in grades five through eight. The Arkansas Department of Education also gains the authority to waive additional federal requirements for local districts without federal review.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said: “Arkansas is demonstrating exactly why the Trump Administration is returning education to the states: to give students a better shot at success by trusting the people closest to them.” Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders added: “Arkansas has proven that when you trust parents, empower teachers, and put students ahead of bureaucracy, kids succeed.”

Author Quote "

Arkansas is demonstrating exactly why the Trump Administration is returning education to the states: to give students a better shot at success by trusting the people closest to them.

What the coverage gets wrong

Most outlets frame Arkansas' federal waiver as a debate over states' rights versus federal control. The evidence-based frame that's missing: the accountability requirements being loosened were specifically designed to force early identification of struggling readers — a population research consistently shows is harmed most by institutional inertia. The IDA's 2025 definition, the first major update in 23 years, explicitly states that early language and literacy support is particularly effective. Loosening those accountability mechanisms is not a neutral policy choice for parents of children who struggle with reading. The relevant question is not which level of government holds the lever — it's whether the lever still gets pulled.

What the coverage misses: accountability is how struggling readers get found

The mainstream framing of these waivers is a debate about federal control versus state autonomy. That framing misses what the accountability requirements were actually doing for children who struggle with reading. The assessment architecture being “simplified” was built on a specific premise: that schools need external pressure to identify struggling readers early, because without it, they default to waiting. Wait-to-fail isn’t a conspiracy — it’s what institutions do when identifying a problem early costs resources and the incentive to look is removed.

The IDA’s 2025 definition of dyslexia — the first major update in 23 years — explicitly made early intervention the standard: “language and literacy support before and during the early years of education is particularly effective.” That standard is backed by neuroimaging research from Yale and Stanford showing that early intervention changes the brain’s reading circuitry in ways that later intervention cannot match. The accountability waivers move in the opposite direction from what that evidence demands.

These waivers don’t arrive alone. On June 16, 2026, the Department of Education announced it was splitting oversight of special education — moving IDEA programs to HHS and civil rights enforcement to the DOJ. Education law expert Janet R. Decker, PhD, JD, of Indiana University Bloomington, stated: “This will result in uneven enforcement of the federal civil rights protections that are promised by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, as well as federal entitlements promised by IDEA.” The office that monitors whether states follow IDEA faces a proposed cut from 163 staff to 31. Parents filing federal complaints now face a system with more than half its regional offices closed. Two different policies, same direction: the federal oversight floor is lower on two dimensions simultaneously.

Key Takeaways:

The five waiver states: Arkansas joins Iowa, Louisiana, Indiana, and Vermont in receiving federal flexibilities that consolidate funding and loosen assessment accountability requirements, with Ed-Flex authority allowing more requirements to be waived without federal review.

Early identification is what's at risk: The IDA's 2025 definition explicitly states early language and literacy support is particularly effective; the accountability structures being loosened were the mechanisms that forced schools to act on that science rather than wait.

IDEA oversight simultaneously weakened: The IDEA monitoring office faces a proposed cut from 163 to 31 staff, and the Office for Civil Rights has closed more than half its regional offices — parents face federal complaint pathways that are harder to use.

What to do before school starts

If your child’s school is in one of the five waiver states — Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Indiana, or Vermont — ask directly, before the school year starts: Does our school still screen all students for reading difficulties in the early grades? What happens when a child falls below the threshold? How quickly does additional support begin?

Parents everywhere now face a second shift. Federal complaint pathways for IEP and 504 disputes are significantly harder to access. Understanding what your child’s rights are and how to pursue them through state channels is no longer optional background knowledge. Ask your school: if my child’s IEP or 504 plan isn’t being followed, who do I contact at the state level? Get that name before you need it.

The brain you’re worried about today is not the brain your child will have after six months of the right kind of practice — that’s not a motivational poster, it’s what the neuroplasticity research actually shows. No federal waiver changes that. What changes is whether the system is designed to find your child early and get them the right support. Right now, that depends more on you than it did two years ago.

Author Quote "

Arkansas has proven that when you trust parents, empower teachers, and put students ahead of bureaucracy, kids succeed.

Parents didn’t create wait-to-fail. It’s what institutions do when the pressure to find struggling readers early is removed — the path of least resistance when the floor drops. The science on early intervention is settled; the IDA and decades of reading research say so plainly. The federal oversight system is being restructured in ways that make that early floor harder to hold. But no waiver can remove the most effective lever in the room: a parent who knows what questions to ask and won’t stop asking them. If your child struggles with reading, writing, or attention, the Learning Success All Access membership gives you the framework, the science, and the strategies to advocate from a position of knowledge — and that knowledge doesn’t depend on which state you live in. Learn more at Learning Success All Access.