The funding shortfall has left parents questioning how a program with growing demand can be allowed to languish. "Where is that money going if it's not going to what it's supposed to be going to?" asked Laura Doyle, whose two children attend a Catholic school on the city's Northwest Side.

Doyle's son and daughter receive speech therapy, social work, and academic support in reading, writing, and math through IDEA, which is financed by federal, state, and local funds. She said her daughter went without services last year and the impact was severe. "She fell behind, her confidence was impacted, she didn't want to go to school because she wasn't able to keep up with her peers, and so that's devastating," Doyle said.

Last month, the Archdiocese of Chicago notified families that due to funding issues, services "will be more limited this year." CPS, which manages the IDEA funds for non-public schools, attributed the shortfall to funding that has not kept pace with rising needs. Enrollment for IDEA services in Chicago's nonpublic schools is growing by roughly 200 to 300 student referrals each month.

The situation echoes a crisis last April, when more than 800 students with disabilities in Chicago's Catholic schools had their support services abruptly canceled for the remainder of the school year. CPS restored those services with emergency funding a week later.

Beth Heaton, the mother of a student who uses IDEA services, said the repeated threats to funding take a toll. "When you strip away the help, that makes it feel like, well, maybe I didn't deserve it," she said.

State Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel (D-Shorewood), a member of the Senate Appropriations Education Committee, said students are legally entitled to these services and that the General Assembly "will continue to evaluate and explore potential solutions."

For families like Doyle's, the stopgap extension offers only temporary relief. "They need these services and so we've got to figure out how to prioritize that," she said.