GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Georgia school districts are spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on legal battles to fight parents of disabled children over special education evaluations.

District records, uncovered by Atlanta News First Investigates, reveal proceedings have more than doubled costing both families and taxpayers.

Seven-year-old Cylus Fears is a third grader in Gwinnett County who is on the autism spectrum. His mother, Teresa Fears, said he has trouble with reading comprehension.

“We’re working on assignments and he’s in tears because he’s not understanding the work,” Fears said. “He was not understanding what he was reading. He was reading just to read, but he wasn’t understanding.”

School records show the district knew about Cylus’ autism diagnosis and that he “struggles answering comprehension questions,” according to the records.

Fears asked the Gwinnett County School District to place her son on an academic individualized education program (IEP), a plan tailored to help students learn with a disability. After meeting with school administrators last year, the district said Cylus didn’t need the IEP and denied Fears request for an independent evaluation for a second opinion.

Parents who disagree with districts have a legal right to request independent evaluations, which typically cost districts about $1,500.

“I was frustrated; I was hurt and scared for my child,” Fears said.

Fears recorded herself in her car after the meeting and posted it on TikTok. After the mother of four shared the video, other parents shared similar stories in her comments.

Missy Purcell, a special education advocate, saw the video. “I watched the TikTok and her crying in her car, and I started crying myself, because we all know that feeling,” Purcell said. “I know that feeling of [knowing] my kid needs help and the very people that should be helping are not helping.”

Purcell, a former Gwinnett County school teacher, is a parent of a child with disabilities. Fears asked her to advocate on her behalf and help navigate special education law.

Purcell said she is seeing a troubling pattern in her practice: school districts waiting for students with disabilities to fail before providing them support and services they were already entitled do under the law.

“We wait for kids to crash out either emotionally, behaviorally, or academically,” Purcell said. “You waited for me to fail and now I’m so far behind, it’s going to take an act of Congress to get me to actually where I need to be.”

Gwinnett County Schools denied Fears’ son an independent evaluation and threatened to take her to court if she didn’t accept the district’s assessment. In a letter, the district it district would file a due process hearing request “to demonstrate that its evaluation was valid and appropriate.”

Due process proceedings allow parents and school districts to present their case before an administrative law judge over whether a child receives services.

“I was just shocked,” Fears said. “I felt betrayed.”

Gwinnett County Schools declined interview requests. “[GCPS] takes all concerns raised by students and families seriously,” said Bernard Watson, the district director of media relations in a prepared statement. “In some instances, the parties are unable to reach a resolution, and legal proceedings are initiated.”

Purcell said the threat of due process can discourage parents from pursuing evaluations.

“A lot of parents would see that and find it very intimidating,” Purcell said. “They’ll say, ‘I’m going to back down because I don’t want to go to due process. I don’t have a lawyer, and I can’t afford it.’ It’s overwhelming, and you end up having to accept wherever your child lands. You just have to wait for them to fail.”

According to records obtained by Atlanta News First Investigates, Gwinnett County Schools spent more than $720,000 on legal fees to hire attorneys for due process proceedings from January 2023 to February 2026. The total does not include settlement agreements paid to families when disputes are resolved out of court.

“Why are we taking funding to go to court, but you can’t take that same funding to support a mom who has been betrayed from the very beginning?” Fears asked.

Records from the Georgia Department of Education show special education due process proceedings have nearly doubled in recent years, from 73 in 2021 to 176 in 2025. The first two months of 2026 alone saw 111 hearings requested In all, there were 727 due process proceedings filed from 2021 to February 2026.

Jennifer Bywaters, a former Fayette County parent, said she experienced a similar situation.

“Fayette County filed due process on me,” Bywaters said at a December 2025 school board meeting. “They sued me. They decided to take me to court instead of pay for a second opinion for my child.

“Everybody says Fayette has great school systems,” Bywaters said. “And if your child is a typical learner, you’re probably going to have a great experience. There are some amazing teachers, but if your child isn’t, I cannot understand why they fight so hard against parents of students with disabilities.”

Bywaters’ son, Nathan, struggled to read in first grade. As a teacher herself, she suspected he had dyslexia, but the school disagreed.

When Bywaters requested an independent evaluation, the Fayette County School District took her to court in 2017 to force her to accept its educational assessment. The district did this knowing Nathan was about to undergo heart surgery, Bywaters said.

“Due process triggers strict timelines,” Bywaters said at the December 2025 meeting. “I had to learn everything. We could not afford an attorney. Because it was summer, we had to push it back and we found ourselves sitting in mediation four days before [Nathan’s] heart procedure and a court date scheduled two days before the procedure.”

District records show Fayette County Schools spent more than $343,000 in taxpayer dollars on legal fees over the past three years involving special education due process proceedings.

“Why are they spending so much money fighting?” Bywaters asked at the meeting. “Why don’t they use that money to give our children what they need to be successful? They put me through this hell right before I’ve got my son with this lifesaving surgery that he’s about to have over $1,500. It’s sickening.”

Fayette County Schools also declined interview requests

“Balancing what students need with responsible use of public funds isn’t always easy,” said Melinda Berry Dreisbach, Fayette County Schools spokesperson. “Our goal is always to work with families early and directly, while using the processes established by law when disagreements cannot be resolved.”

Bywaters resolved with the district and eventually got her son an independent evaluation, which showed he had dyslexia. After getting Nathan the help he needed, Bywaters said his reading drastically improved.

After consulting with Purcell to advocate on her behalf, Fears said Gwinnett County school administrators may now pay for some of Cylus’ evaluation. The district also withdrew its threat to take her to court for now.

“It was a relief, but why did we even have to go this route?” Fears said. “If they had done the proper research and gathered more information from me and the school and dug deeper, we could have avoided all of this.”

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