OPB The deal Congress reached to re-open the federal government requires the Trump administration to reinstate federal workers who were fired in October, including those charged with overseeing the nation’s special education laws. But it’s not clear how long they’ll...
Disability Scoop A deal to end the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown is reversing plans to gut the U.S. Department of Education’s special education office and providing funds for other disability programs — at least temporarily. President Donald Trump signed...
K-12 Dive Some 45 states reported special education teacher shortages in the 2023-24 school year, according to a Learning Policy Institute study from July that Brookings cited. A separate report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences...
K-12 Dive Teacher preparation experts fear ongoing special education teacher shortages will worsen as the Trump administration continues to downsize the U.S. Department of Education. Along with mass layoffs at the federal agency, proposals to consolidate federal...
Last week, COPAA and several other advocacy organizations filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in support of a student with a disability who is in the foster care system in Y.C.Q. v. Chichester School District. You can read the...
On October 30, COPAA and several other organizations, law firms, lawyers, and legal scholars filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Y.A. v. Hamtramck, a case in which a group parents of children with disabilities sued their...
On the 42nd day of the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, the U.S. Senate has attracted bipartisan support for a new deal that could lead to reopening the government. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 proposal -that passed 60-40- will extend government funding through...
Despite the pending short-term agreement led by the Senate that would allow federal employees to return to work, COPAA remains extremely concerned that the Department of Education (ED) has taken steps to eliminate all but a handful of staff and gut key offices...
In response to the federal government’s current lack of support for the disparate impact framework, the Legal Defense Fund, Democracy Forward, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the National Institute for Workers' Rights have released...