Advocates Seek to Protect Children with Disabilities from Federal Cuts

In March, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14242 seeking to eliminate the US Department of Education. That order has since been blocked by a preliminary injunction issued on May 22 by US District Judge Myong J. Joun of Boston, but advocates for students with disabilities remain concerned. Meanwhile, Trump administration’s efforts to axe the department and cut funding continue.

Nationwide, an estimated 7.5 million students—15 percent of the nation’s entire enrolled public school student population—participate in programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the main federal legislative framework that covers special education and individualized education programs (IEPs).

Advocates are already beginning to see more problems at the local level.

While Trump has promised to keep special education intact, he has proposed to move programs to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Experts and parents fear that such a shift, along with broader funding cuts, could undo decades of gains in educational achievement for students with disabilities.

Students at Risk

Until the 1970s, when Congress enacted what is now known as IDEA—the program that guarantees every student with a disability the right to a free, appropriate public education—many children with disabilities didn’t attend school. Of those who were able to enroll, most were relegated to separate classrooms, kept segregated from their peers without disabilities. By contrast, today, most students with disabilities spend the majority of their time in general education classes, with the help of aides and other support, where they perform better academically and socially.

According to Lindsay Kubatzky, director of policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, advocates are already beginning to see problems at the local level after the Trump administration’s changes. Investigations into civil rights complaints, for example, would typically have been addressed by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Education, which is tasked with enforcing civil rights laws in schools and other entities funded by the agency. In many cases those investigations have now been halted, leaving students and families with little recourse.

Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, told Truthout that her organization and the National Center for Youth Law have filed a federal lawsuit to restore the OCR’s investigative functions.

The lawsuit alleges that “students with pending complaints are losing out on their right to access an education free from discrimination. Others are losing significant instructional time. Some families have been forced to send their children to school far from their home communities.”

“We need to have these federal protections being enforced because otherwise we’re going to see students with disabilities not getting the public education that they deserve and have a right to,” Kubatzky told NPQ.

“If the Department of Education were dismantled, IDEA would technically remain in place,” Robyn Linscott, director of education and family policy for The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit that serves people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, told NPQ. “But without federal oversight, enforcement would be severely weakened. There would be no meaningful accountability to ensure states uphold the law.”

The plan to transfer special education to [Health and Human Services] is “short-sighted, offensive, and unacceptable.”

Financial support for services is also on the chopping block. Students with disabilities often receive additional services from therapists, aides, and special education teachers, often paid for through federal grants, as well as over $7.5 billion provided to K–12 schools annually through Medicaid.

If Medicaid is cut—and the bill approved by the House of Representatives in May, would, if passed into law, cut $700 billion in funding over the next 10 years—schools would have to find the money from other sources.

Advocacy Efforts Step Up

In early April, more than 40 disability rights groups wrote an open letter to Congress, calling on members to keep the Department of Education intact, keep special education within the department, and preserve funding for special education.

In the letter, the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities wrote that the plan to transfer special education to HHS is “short-sighted, offensive, and unacceptable” because it “segregates students with disabilities from school-based resources and support” and risks promoting “a medical model of disability that could only lead to stigmatizing, segregating, and ‘othering’ children with disabilities.”

The federal government currently covers about 10 percent of the total cost of special education. “We continue to advocate to Congress to increase or at least maintain funding for special education services. But we also are advocating for Congress to put pressure on the administration around some of these decisions,” Kubatzky said.

Advocacy efforts are not just at the federal level, however. Linscott told NPQ that advocates at The Arc New York are working on multiple levels to uphold students’ rights under IDEA. Every state has at least one Parent Training and Information Center, for example, which receive funding from the US Department of Education. These centers offer a critical resource that helps families with children with disabilities understand their rights and navigate the system.

“Advocates help families ensure their child’s IEP reflects the student’s unique strengths and needs—and that it includes the right supports, services, and accommodations,” said Linscott. They also support families through dispute resolution processes, including mediation and due process hearings. These community-level advocacy efforts are replicated in many organizations nationwide, and the funding and structures that underpin them are now threatened.

Layoffs Pose Ongoing Civil Rights Challenge

Part of the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the Department of Education has been severe staff cuts and office closures. By March, the administration had closed seven of the 12 OCR regional offices. Offices were shut down in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, and Cleveland. Offices remain open in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

The administration also laid off of approximately 1,300 employees at the department. Combined with 600 people who accepted early buyouts, these staff reductions have left the department at about half of its normal staffing levels. Judge Joun’s injunction called for the laid-off employees to be reinstated, but so far that has not happened. However, on June 12, the Federal News Network reported that staff who have been laid off were receiving inquiries from department management asking if they’re still available to work, suggesting that a move to reinstate at least some of the employees may be underway.

NPQ spoke with Brittany Coleman, a national shop steward for the American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 252 that represents Department of Education employees. She was laid off in March from her government job as a civil rights attorney at the now-closed Dallas OCR.

Coleman’s job had been to receive complaints from the public related to civil rights in education, such as a complaint from a parent concerned that their child is not being treated fairly because of their disability.

Despite Judge Joun’s order to reinstate department employees, the Dallas office remains closed and at the time of our interview Coleman’s status was unclear. “We have asked for that information from the agency repeatedly, and they’re not providing it,” she said. “They’re not explaining to us even though there are still five regional offices open with the Office for Civil Rights.” Meanwhile, the union continues to advocate.

“We are encouraging everyone to reach out to their senators and congresspeople,” Coleman said, “particularly if they are Republicans, because Republicans are in control of the House and the Senate right now, and they’re really one of the few stopgaps left to try to stop the destruction of the Department of Education, and in particular the Office for Civil Rights.”