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AX4E for K-12 Districts · ADA Title II · WCAG 2.1 AA

Districts in three states already signed. Yours has a deadline.

Illinois. California. New York. School districts signed federal resolution agreements over their websites years before the DOJ set a hard date. The documents are public, the pattern is consistent, and the fix is more manageable than most leaders expect.

About a minute, no email required to see results. Just your district's actual starting point.

Wisconsin district? Read the Wisconsin edition, with your state's own enforcement record.

Which deadline applies to your district?

Deadlines reflect the DOJ's April 2026 extension of the Title II web rule. Population is generally determined from federal estimates for your district's service area. These are compliance deadlines, not target dates.

Three districts, three states, one pattern

Each case below is a real OCR website-accessibility matter with the federal document linked. Different districts, nearly identical obligations.

Illinois

Community High School District 128

OCR Docket No. 05-17-1134 · 2017

A complaint alleged the district's website contained barriers denying people with disabilities equal participation. The district signed: accessibility policies for all new content, vendor-claim verification, annual documented training, and OCR monitoring with a 60-day cure clause.

The lessonThe district was already building a new website. It still had to sign, prove the new site was barrier-free on OCR's timetable, and train staff annually.
California

Benicia Unified School District

OCR Case No. 09-17-1238 · 2017

The full package: an OCR-approved outside auditor, an audit covering every page including intranet sites, a corrective action plan on an 18-month clock, an accessibility notice linked from every page, annual training, and reports to OCR every six months.

The lessonOCR reserved the right to visit, interview staff, and request simulated website accounts and passwords until it decided the district was done.
New York

Rye City School District

OCR Case No. 02-16-1475 · 2016

OCR investigators examined specific pages and documented specific failures, then the district signed the standard package: auditor, 18-month corrective plan, public notice, and training. The federal letter names every page and every barrier.

The lessonOCR noted the complainant could file a private federal lawsuit whether or not OCR found a violation. The agency is not the only enforcement path.

What federal investigators actually looked at

From the Rye City resolution letter: the exact pages OCR examined, and the exact barriers it found. Notice the pattern: they check the pages families depend on.

Pages OCR examined

  • District homepage
  • Special education pages
  • School calendar
  • Food service site
  • English language learners pages
  • Curriculum & assessments
  • Student forms & regulations

Barriers OCR cited

  • Images missing alt text descriptions
  • Content reachable only with a mouse
  • Color combinations with poor contrast
  • Videos with inaccurate captions
  • No way to skip to main content

Every one of these is detectable, fixable, and preventable with publishing standards. None of them requires a seven-figure rebuild to correct.

Enforcement comes from three directions

The rule does not depend on any one agency's priorities. All three channels are open today.

Channel 1

OCR complaints

Free to file, no lawyer required, from anywhere in the country. One advocate generated ~2,400 K-12 complaints in two years, and more than 1,000 districts signed agreements.

Channel 2

DOJ enforcement

The Title II web rule makes WCAG 2.1 AA the enforceable federal standard after your deadline. Seattle Public Schools operated under a DOJ consent decree years before the rule existed.

Channel 3

Private lawsuits

Families can sue in federal court whether or not OCR acts, as OCR itself reminded Rye City in writing. Web accessibility suits keep climbing year over year.

Want the rules without the pitch? Start there.

The fastest way to get your board, IT director and web vendor on the same page is a resource none of them has to be sold on. These are free, plain-language, and built to be forwarded.

Forward them internally. When your team is ready for a baseline, the free scan is one click away.

Five steps, sized to a district budget cycle

Districts that start now spread the work across budget years. Districts that wait do the same work on a federal clock.

2 · This term

Readiness review

Sites, documents, platforms and vendors inventoried into one prioritized plan.

3 · Sprints

Remediation

Templates, high-traffic pages, PDFs and captions, human-verified.

4 · Staff

Training

Publishing standards for office staff, communications, teachers and IT.

5 · Ongoing

Monitoring

Continuous scanning and progress records that document good faith.

Get your district's baseline.

Free automated scan of your district homepage against WCAG. Results in about a minute, prioritized in plain language.

No email required to see results. Prefer to talk first? Request a Readiness Review.

What district leaders ask us

Which deadline applies to our district?
Entities serving 50,000 or more people: April 26, 2027. Districts under 50,000 and special district governments: April 26, 2028. Population is generally determined from federal estimates for your service area; the picker at the top of this page gives you the date in one click.
Is this actually being enforced, given all the federal changes?
The rule has not been changed or rescinded. More importantly, enforcement never depended on one agency: OCR complaints are free for anyone to file, and families can bring private ADA lawsuits whether or not OCR acts, as OCR itself noted in the Rye City letter. The 2016-18 wave produced over 1,000 signed district agreements without any rule at all.
What does OCR actually check?
The pages families depend on. At Rye City, investigators examined the homepage, special education pages, the calendar, food service and curriculum pages, and cited missing alt text, mouse-only content, low contrast, inaccurate captions and missing skip navigation.
Does Google Classroom or Canvas content count?
Yes. There is no exception for password-protected course content. The LMS and the materials teachers post to it generally must meet WCAG 2.1 AA.
Do we have to rebuild the whole website?
Usually no. Most districts remediate in prioritized sprints: fix templates and high-traffic pages, remediate the documents families actually use, caption new video, and set publishing standards so new content stays accessible. A rebuild only makes sense when the platform itself cannot be made accessible.
Our web vendor says accessibility is handled. Are we covered?
The obligation stays with the district, and OCR agreements specifically require districts to verify vendor accessibility claims. Ask for a current WCAG 2.1 AA conformance report, and test the pages yourself with a scan.
What does it cost?
It depends on site size, document volume and video, which is exactly what a readiness review scopes. The free scan costs nothing, the review produces a plan with a budget range, and starting early spreads the cost across budget years instead of compressing it into a federal timeline.
What should we do first?
Three things, in order: run the free scan for a baseline, send TitleII.org to your board and IT team so everyone shares the same facts, then get a readiness review that turns it all into one plan.
AX4E means Access for Everyone
Access is a civil right. Every family deserves a district website that welcomes them.

That is the whole company. The tools, the audits, the training and the deadlines all serve it. Our nonprofit mission lives at AX4E.org; the work happens here.

Other districts signed on OCR's schedule. Start on yours.

A one-minute baseline today beats an 18-month federal corrective action plan tomorrow.

Scan Your District's Website Free

Or request a Title II Readiness Review