Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
Most states don’t require school emergency plans for disabled students. They feel left behind and at risk.
CBS News
Niamh Winright’s worst nightmare began with a loud bang. Then came the sound of shattering glass and the piercing echoes of gunfire. Reality set in. She was caught in the middle of a school shooting. On the morning of Oct. 24, 2022, panic swept through the joint campus of the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience in St. Louis, Missouri. The 911 calls began pouring in as a gunman entered the building. “I saw a gentleman with a rifle shoot at the door and go in,” one caller told dispatchers. “I don’t want to die. Please. Please,” said one student in another frantic 911 call. Winright, who lives with autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis and uses a cane, suddenly found herself crammed into a corner with her classmates. Her cane was knocked away during the scramble for safety.
UW-La Crosse program for students with disabilities loses critical federal grant
WPR
After 40 years of federal support, a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse program training teachers to provide physical education for students with disabilities will no longer receive a critical grant. Future educators in the Adapted Physical Education program learn to work with students with physical and developmental disabilities by providing on-campus instruction for La Crosse-area families and through partnerships with local schools. For decades, the program has competed for a personnel development grant through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education programs, according to associate professor Brock McMullen, the program’s director. He said UW-La Crosse supports around 30 graduate students over the course of the five-year grant. The program was last awarded $1.25 million in 2020. McMullen said the university had sent in its application for the next round of funding last December. But in April, he was notified that the U.S. Department of Education was canceling the grant program for good because it did not “fit with the administration’s priorities.”
Specialized charter schools need to ensure inclusive practices, report says
K-12 Dive
While specialized charter schools may offer unique learning programs tailored for a specific disability, school leaders and management organizations should ensure they are following nondiscrimination laws and are giving students inclusive opportunities, CLE advises. The center found that there were 154 specialized charter schools with a total of 20,044 students. These schools have a special education focus or have at least 50% of their population identifying as students with disabilities. While specialized charter schools only represent 3% of all charters nationwide, they can “create tension with long-standing goals to provide students with disabilities access to inclusive learning environments alongside non-disabled peers,” a May 12 statement from CLE said.
House Budget Reconciliation Bill Cuts Medicaid, Adds Education Voucher
The Republicans have finalized a Budget Reconciliation bill that is designed to pay for nearly $1 trillion in tax credits for businesses and to add new tax relief for some taxpayers. Together, three House Committees produced cuts to existing mandatory spending programs to pay for the final package. Specifically, $350 billion will come from education by changing student loan program rules, limiting access to Pell Grants for low-income students (including students with disabilities), ending interest subsidies for undergraduates while they are in school, revamping loan repayment plans, and rolling back a range of accountability regulations. The biggest ‘pay-for’ will come from Medicaid, which has been cut by more than $800 billion. Other cuts were made to the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and to clean energy programs. The final bill would also add $20 billion in new funding that would provide tax credits to individuals who donate to “a scholarship-granting organization,” which then provides up to $5000 annually through a ‘funded’ voucher to use for tuition, books, online education, and more. Families making more than three hundred percent of the local gross median income do not qualify. While language was added to this provision, which references students with disabilities and access to “equitable services” (which is a provision of current law), the bill does not add any new protections for children with disabilities who may qualify and seek to attend a private school. As written, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 7.6 million people will be cut from Medicaid, which also adds new work requirements, ends eligibility and enrollment rules for dually eligible individuals who already qualify due to disability, freezes payments to states for certain types of care (including some home based services), mandates cost-sharing on enrollees with very low incomes and more. COPAA, along with disability and education advocates, have opposed the bill due to the drastic cuts to Medicaid as well as the addition of the education voucher mechanism.
ACT NOW: Congress is expected to vote THIS WEEK on the budget reconciliation bill. Please TAKE ACTION TODAY. Tell Congress to protect students with disabilities and reject the House Budget Reconciliation bill.
ED Publishes IDEA Policy Guidance from January 2024-2025
The U.S. Department of Education has updated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) searchable database to include Dear Colleague letters, policy guidance, and selected fact sheets for the calendar year 2024. Guidance includes topics such as inclusive educational practices, secondary and post-secondary transition, special education personnel retention, exclusionary discipline, using functional behavioral assessments to create supportive learning environments, a voluntary self-assessment to support military connected children with disabilities, early hearing detection and intervention, physical education and adaptive physical education, and improving access to assistive technology devices for children with disabilities.
House Education Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Charter Schools
Last week, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing, Reimagining Education: How Charter Schools are Closing Gaps and Opening Doors. The hearing featured testimony from four witnesses: Mr. David Griffith (Associated Director of Research, Thomas B. Fordham Institute), Ms. Eva Moskowitz (CEO and President, Success Academy Charter Schools), Dr. Genevieve Siegel-Hawley (Professor of Educational Leadership, Virginia Commonwealth University), and Mr. Darryl Cobb (President, Charter School Growth Fund). Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) and other proponents praised charter schools as engines for innovation that improve academic and civic outcomes for both charter students and those in traditional public schools. Moskowitz outlined dire consequences for students attending low-quality schools and offered that charter schools can be the solution. In contrast, several Committee Members voiced concerns that charter schools may exacerbate segregation – particularly among students of color and students with disabilities – and often lack sufficient accountability for academic results and civil rights compliance. In her testimony, Dr. Siegel-Hawley noted that charter schools are less likely than traditional public schools to enroll students with disabilities, and when they do, those students often have less severe disabilities. She emphasized the need for accountability mechanisms to ensure that charter schools serve a diverse student population and deliver high-quality services, especially for students with disabilities.
Nonprofit wants to take on civil rights cases Trump’s education department left behind
The 74
For nearly a decade, Shaheena Simons led the division that fought for students’ civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. Her tenure encompassed President Donald Trump’s first term, a time when staff still addressed the “full range of complaints” — from racial and gender discrimination to schools denying services to students with disabilities. Shaheena Simons was chief of the Educational Opportunities Section at the U.S. Department of Justice for nine years. Now she’ll co-chair an advisory council for the new Public Education Defense Fund. But to Simons, the Justice Department’s recent dismissal of a school desegregation order in Louisiana — at a time when racial and socioeconomic isolation continues — is a sign that the current administration has turned its back on students who don’t receive an equal education. It’s why she left the Educational Opportunities Section at the DOJ after 14 years in April.
Trump official’s autism schools secluded and restrained students at high rates
the 74
Arizona Autism Charter Schools, whose founder, Diana Diaz-Harrison, has been tapped to oversee the education of children with disabilities in President Donald Trump’s second administration, has used controversial, potentially dangerous disciplinary practices on its students at an unusually high rate. In the 2020-21 academic year, the latest for which federal data is available, school staff physically restrained 41% of its students and put 20% in seclusion, which is defined by the U.S. Department of Education as the involuntary confinement of a child, typically in a locked room. That’s 50% higher than the rate at which students are restrained and confined nationally. Many states — including Arizona — have outlawed or severely curtailed the circumstances under which the practices are allowed. At the time the data was collected, the charter network founded by Diaz-Harrison had two schools serving 283 students, 116 of whom were restrained and 57 secluded. Ninety-nine of the schools’ 146 K-5 students, or 68%, had been restrained.
Some states reexamine school discipline as Trump order paves go-ahead
North Platte Post
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to reinstate “common sense” school discipline, more states may follow and expand the authority of teachers and school officials to deal with disruptive students. The order, signed in April, repeals prior federal guidance that encouraged schools to address racial disparities in discipline, arguing that such policies promoted “discriminatory equity ideology” and compromised school safety by pressuring administrators to underreport serious student misconduct. In some states, new legislation already is trending toward giving teachers more authority to address student misbehavior.
OPINION: College students with disabilities are being abandoned by the Trump administration
Teen Vogue
Right now, hundreds of thousands of high school seniors are locking in their final decision about which college they plan to attend this fall. On top of the usual considerations when searching for a good match, disabled students often have to take campus accessibility and accommodations into account, including ramps, elevators, and amplification equipment. Securing appropriate accommodations can already be more complicated in higher education than in primary or secondary school, and it’s likely going to become more difficult as universities and colleges reduce their diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) practices under the threat of losing federal funding from the Trump administration.
COPAA Members on Capitol Hill
Last week, 70 COPAA members from 20 states conducted 75 hill visits to make recommendations to the 119th Congress. With overwhelmingly positive reviews, advocates reported that their visits were both impactful and timely as Congress finalizes the budget reconciliation bill, determines funding levels for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)/other education programs, and contemplates proposals that may impact which agency houses IDEA and supports children with disabilities in the long run. During COPAA Hill Days, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and the Senate Democratic Caucus hosted Abandoning America’s Promise: The Real Cost of Dismantling the Department of Education where COPAA member Diane Willcutts testified -and took questions from ten U.S. Senators- about the critically important role of the Office of Special Education and the Office for Civil Rights. (See below). Overall, COPAA Hill Days was an enormous success. If you want to engage with COPAA in its advocacy with the U.S. Congress, please take five minutes and send emails to your Senators and Representative about the urgent matters under debate today!
Senate Democrats Hosts Forum on Administration’s Education Activities
On Tuesday, May 6, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, hosted a forum on the Administration’s proposal and current activities focused on dismantling the Department of Education (ED). Attended by ten Senate Democrats, the forum was described as “the first in a series” to “expose and create more awareness about the devastating consequences for students, families, educators, and schools.” The event featured testimony from Rhode Island’s Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Angélica Infante-Green, President and CEO of The Education Trust Denise Forte, parent advocate and member of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates Diane Willcutts, and Tasha Berkhalter, an Army veteran who was defrauded by ITT Tech. The forum highlighted the historical context and current role of ED, which was described by Forte as having four critical pillars. Willcutts and Infante-Green highlighted the need for ED to continue to function and provide guidance through Dear Colleague Letters and provide technical assistance to states and districts whose oversight, according to Infante-Green, “helps keep honest states honest and helps those who waiver do better.” Willcutts gave examples of the important roles of the Office of Special Education and the Office for Civil Rights in helping students with disabilities and families directly when “one phone call from ED helped a district change its position…so a child [at home due to epilepsy] could take the bus and return safely to school.” Murray concluded by reaffirming that abolishing ED is “deeply unpopular” with the public and asserted that Senate Democrats “will not stand idly by as [the Administration] jeopardizes the rights, opportunities, access, and funding for all our schools and millions of students.”
COPAA Opposes House Budget Bills that Jeopardize IDEA Rights, Cut Medicaid
This week the House Ways & Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee have proposed budget reconciliation bills that include provisions harmful to children with disabilities. Specifically, the House Ways & Means bill would add $20 billion in funding for a tax mechanism that would provide tax credits to individuals who donate to “a scholarship granting organization” and then access up to $5000 annually through a voucher to use for tuition, curriculum, books, online education, and more. Families making more than three times the local median income do not qualify. While language was added to reference students with disabilities and accessing “equitable services” -as allowed under current law to ensure public school districts reserve some IDEA funding for parentally placed children in private schools- the bill does not add any new protections. Similarly, the House Energy and Commerce bill would cut Medicaid by more than $800 billion.
“The House budget bills deliver a double blow to children with disabilities by prioritizing a flawed voucher scheme and by cutting funding essential to providing services to children with disabilities,” said Denise Marshall, COPAA CEO. “On its own, the voucher proposal is a bait and switch because we know families who use vouchers can lose their IDEA rights; accountability suffers; and costs go up. Rather than prioritizing IDEA funding to benefit the 8 million children with disabilities (ages 0-21) served by early intervention and schools, the House has proposed a $20 billion boon to private schools that is paid for by massive cuts to Medicaid. Together, these proposals jeopardize access to all IDEA protections, including the screenings, interventions, therapies and services, assistive technology, and more that children and youth with disabilities need.”
COPAA is the author of School Choice Series Choice & Vouchers—Implications for Students with Disabilities, whose findings demonstrated that while some families can benefit from voucher programs, what is also true is that most voucher programs cut the IDEA-eligible child off from IDEA rights and cause loss of services and supports. The report also highlights the severe consequences families can face, such as financial strain; being pushed out by private or religious schools when children are deemed too challenging to educate; and there is often no accountability for student outcomes equal to state accountability systems.
How kids with disabilities will be impacted by Medicaid, Education Department cuts
19th News
Jolene Baxter’s daughter, Marlee, has overcome immense challenges in her first eight years of life. Marlee, who was born with a heart defect, has undergone four open-heart surgeries — suffering a stroke after the third. The stroke affected Marlee’s cognitive abilities — she’s in the second grade, but she cannot read yet. A mainstream class with neurotypical students felt overwhelming, so Marlee mostly attends classes with kids who also have disabilities. Her care includes physical, occupational, and speech therapies. For years, Baxter has relied on Medicaid to cover Marlee’s medical expenses while advocating for her daughter’s right to an equal education. Medicaid, which covers therapies, surgeries, and medication for Marlee — and disability protections under the Department of Education have been a critical safety net for Baxter, a single mom in Oklahoma City. Now, Baxter fears that proposed cuts to Medicaid and those already underway at the Department of Education, which President Donald Trump has effectively gutted, will have a disastrous impact on her daughter.
Trump’s dismantling of Education Department gives states ‘green light’ to pursue voucher programs
NBC News
A growing number of red states have expanded their school voucher programs in recent years, a trend that is likely to only spike further amid a push led by President Donald Trump’s administration to return education “back to the states.” Conservative education activists have long lauded such programs as a way to give greater control to parents and families. However, public education advocates warn that the expansion of these voucher programs presents further risk to the broader school system as it faces peril from Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education. “Many states came into this administration with a track record of trying to privatize education, and I think they see this move to dismantle and defund the Department of Ed and President Trump’s support of school privatization as a green light to be more expansive in their approach moving forward,” said Hilary Wething, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute who closely studies the impact of voucher programs on public education. Just last week, Texas enacted a statewide private school voucher program, becoming the 16th state to offer some form of a universal school choice program.