Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
ARCHIVE
The Education Department gave another agency power to distribute its money. It hasn’t gone well.
POLITICO The stumbles of an early Trump administration experiment to carve up the Education Department risks undercutting the president’s more dramatic demolition plan for the agency. The Labor Department began taking control of federal career, technical, and adult...
With crossed wires and late funding, some call Education Department move to Labor a ‘muddle’
The 74 The Education Department last week unveiled six interagency agreements with four other federal agencies as part of the Trump administration’s plan to wind down an agency that it argues was unconstitutional to begin with. “Let’s make sure that that grant...
Fragmented federal education plan could harm students with disabilities, advocates warn
Education Week Parceling out the U.S. Department of Education’s responsibilities to other agencies puts students with disabilities at risk by weakening federal enforcement of the laws that protect them and severing important connections between offices that help...
Concerns raised as teachers increasingly use AI to write IEPs
Disability Scoop The number of teachers using AI to develop individualized education programs, or IEPs, for students with disabilities is surging, but so too are questions about what role the technology should play. Among licensed special education teachers, 57% said...
AZ: Lessons learned from Arizona’s universal school choice program
K-12 Dive Arizona’s ESA program launched in the 2011-12 school year with 144 students, and over the next few years, it served mostly targeted populations such as students with disabilities. In 2022-23, the program opened up to all students. ESAs provide K-12 families...
CA: Opinion | CA lifeline for youngsters with special needs is in danger
Cal Matters When my daughter’s development stalled and then regressed, her bright personality dimmed. Doctors said to wait. But as a clinician I suspected she needed urgent help — the kind that Early Start, California’s early intervention program, provides....
GA: ‘Students like Theo shouldn’t fall through the crack’: Parent propose a law to mandate inclusive graduation for students with disabilities
2020 was a significant year for millions of graduating high school seniors, as some schools right here in South Georgia hosted drive-thru, socially distanced, or virtual ceremonies, while others did not even have a ceremony. But one family remembers that time as a...
LA: Federal oversight of special education in New Orleans could soon end
Louisiana Illuminator A decade of court oversight of special education services in New Orleans public schools, the result of a legal settlement, will most likely cease by the end of the year, the judge presiding over the legal settlement said Wednesday. The decision,...
TN: LGBTQ+, disabled students face exclusion from private schools
Nashville Banner More than 170 of the 241 Tennessee private schools eligible to receive state-funded vouchers in the first year of the Education Freedom Scholarship program have a publicly listed admission inclusion policy. Many of the schools post a version of this...
Congressional Democrats Decry Dismantling of Disability Labor Protections
A coalition of 56 Democratic lawmakers, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Reps Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Lateefah Simon (D-CA), sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer condemning what they describe as the “most...
