Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
ARCHIVE
McMahon Nomination Hearing Thursday, Advocates Ask for Answers on Plans to Protect Students with Disabilities
As the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee prepares for Thursday’s nomination hearing of Linda McMahon to serve as Secretary of Education, COPAA and disability advocates wrote and urged the HELP Committee to conduct an “informed dialogue”...
Expected Trump Order to Shutter Education Dept. Could Amount to ‘Pocket Change’
The 74 Despite the fiery rhetoric, President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate a Department of Education he accuses of abusing “taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth” comes down, appropriately, to civics and math. First, the president cannot legally abolish...
Exclusive: 12 Education Chiefs Ask McMahon for More Control over Federal Funds
The 74 Some state education chiefs aren’t wasting any time letting the new administration know what they want. A dozen state leaders, all from Republican-led states, wrote to Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s education secretary nominee, last week asking her to...
Opinion: Nation’s Report Card shows we fail students with disabilities
The Mercury News When the Nation’s Report Card was released last month, it reiterated a hard truth about our education system today: We are failing our students with disabilities. Students with disabilities, who make up 15% of all public school students, continue to...
Trump wants to shake up education. What that could mean for a charter school started by a GOP senator’s wife
The hechinger Report Screening revealed that Brooke had dyslexia — a common learning disability stemming from neurological differences that make it difficult to identify sounds and associate them with letters and words. When her private school told the Simmons family...
Hundreds of thousands of students with disabilities should be getting trained for work through pre-employment transition services — but aren’t
The Hechinger Report There’s a half-billion-dollar federal program that is supposed to help students with disabilities get into the workforce when they leave high school, but most parents — and even some school officials — don’t know it exists. As a result, hundreds...
Department of Education Announces Another Round of New Appointees
On Thursday, February 6, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new slate of appointees tasked with advancing President Trump’s education priorities. Notable appointments include James Bergeron as Deputy Under Secretary, who brings extensive experience in higher...
Lawmakers Demand Answers on Threats to Education Department Operations and Data Security
On Wednesday, February 5, Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), along with Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Rosa DeLaura (D-CT) wrote to acting Secretary of Education Denise Carter, expressing their concerns for actions...
House Education and Workforce Hearing: The State of American Education
On Wednesday, February 5, Chairman Tim Wahlberg (R-MI) led the House Education and Workforce Committee’s first full committee hearing titled The State of American Education. Pitched as an “examination” of K-12 education in the U.S., testimonies were presented by four...
National Reading and Math Outcomes Released
According to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released this week by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Grade 4 math scores improved between 2022 and 2024, a two-point gain that follows a 5-point decline from 2019 to...