PGCPS Confirms All Special Needs Students Requiring Aides Now Have One Assigned

Seven months after a federal funding violation was exposed inside Prince George's County Public Schools, the district confirmed that every student with a disability who requires a one-on-one aide now has one assigned, a resolution that came without any public accountability for the lapse that left 80 children without legally mandated services.

PGCPS told FOX45 News that as of March 5, 2026, all students with disabilities requiring a 1:1 aide have one assigned to them. The confirmation closes a gap that Project Baltimore first documented in August 2025, when the investigative unit found the district appeared to be in violation of federal law by failing to provide aides to 80 students whose Individualized Education Programs legally required one.

The numbers Project Baltimore assembled were stark. As of May 31, PGCPS had 434 students whose IEPs required a one-on-one aide. Only 354 had one assigned, leaving 80 children without a service the federal government both mandated and paid for. Prince George's County was the only district among all 24 Maryland public school systems to appear out of compliance, a finding Project Baltimore reached after collecting records statewide because the Maryland State Department of Education does not maintain detailed records on 1:1 aide assignments.

IEPs are federally funded and legally binding. PGCPS received the tax dollars designated for those services. The students, according to Project Baltimore's reporting, were not receiving them.

To date, no one inside the district has been publicly held responsible. "No one ever gets fired or loses their job for not following federal law," Cindy Rose, an advocate and the mother of a special needs son in Maryland public schools, told Project Baltimore. "You need to hold people accountable."

Project Baltimore reported that, to its knowledge, no one was held accountable following the investigation. PGCPS has not publicly disclosed whether any staff were disciplined, reassigned, or terminated in connection with the staffing failure.

The Maryland Department of Education, for its part, told Project Baltimore it conducts routine audits and monitoring and may require corrective action when violations arise. The state said it was working with PGCPS to mitigate the impact of staffing shortages, framing the absence of aides as a hiring problem rather than a compliance breakdown.

When Project Baltimore contacted the U.S. Department of Education, the agency said responsibility for investigating individual complaints rests with the state, effectively passing enforcement authority back to Annapolis.

The consequences of absent aides extend beyond paperwork. In 2019, Anne Arundel County Public Schools student Bowen Levy died days after choking on a glove at school. Levy was required to have a one-on-one aide present; he did not.

Following FOX45's August 2025 investigation, Prince George's County Delegate Nicole Williams introduced House Bill 1013, formally titled the Prince George's County Special Education Service Delivery, Transparency, and Accountability Act. The bill is intended to help ensure students with disabilities receive their mandated services, though some advocates say it does not go far enough.

Whether "assigned" translates to aides actively present in classrooms each day remains an open question PGCPS has not directly addressed in its public statements.