Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
Parents say federal cuts have slowed civil rights investigations
NPR
Amy Cupp says that after weeks of trying to get G’s school to change the way it handled her daughter’s behavior, she filed a complaint with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, which investigates discrimination in schools. That office recently lost more than 40% of its staff after the Trump administration launched a massive downsizing of the department. Now, Cupp and other parents say their civil rights complaints aren’t being investigated. Last week, Cupp joined a lawsuit that aims to force the federal government to act on complaints like hers. The lawsuit claims the layoffs have undermined OCR’s “ability to fulfill its statutory and regulatory mandate to enforce civil rights laws in schools.” “I just can’t fathom that anybody would cut something so vital,” says Cupp, a devout Christian. She says she voted for President Trump and thought he shared her beliefs. “But I can’t understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, because that is not what God would intend.”
HHS plans to cut funds used to investigate abuse at group homes
Mother Jones
On Wednesday, a leaked draft Health and Human Services budget document revealed, among other sweeping cuts to health- and disability-related services, that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s department plans to defund protection and advocacy services for people with developmental disabilities—including autistic people, about whom Kennedy also spreads harmful disinformation. The budget document is a proposal, pending official release and eventually congressional approval; it’s also unclear whether suggested cuts originate with Kennedy’s HHS or Project 2025 architect Russell Vought’s Office of Management and Budget. Federal funding for nongovernmental organizations to provide legal and advocacy services to people with developmental disabilities started in 1978 with the Developmentally Disabled Assistance and Bill of Rights Act. There are now 57 protection and advocacy agencies—one in every state, every territory, and in Washington, DC—that work to enforce the rights of people with developmental disabilities, those with mental health conditions, and other disabilities. The agencies, known as P&As, are overseen by HHS’s Administration for Community Living—which is being dismantled.
Bills in Congress detail path to closing the Education Department
K-12 Dive
Several Republican-led bills introduced in Congress this year propose how to divide up the U.S. Department of Education’s responsibilities among other federal agencies — and thereby carry out President Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate the 45-year-old agency. Some of the bills recommend transferring special education oversight and grants to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, folding civil rights enforcement into the U.S. Department of Justice, and moving student loan programs to the U.S. Department of Treasury. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers have filed their own measures to prevent the Education Department shutdown and express support for the federal role in education.
Special needs students are underserved in DODEA schools, watchdog report finds
Stars and Stripes
Some special needs students attending Defense Department schools are being underserved due to staffing shortages and high turnover among special education personnel, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report released Thursday. The problem is exacerbated by rigid staffing formulas used by the Department of Defense Education Activity, or DODEA, which operates the school system. Those formulas, the report said, rely on student headcounts rather than the hours required to adequately serve students, often underestimating staffing needs. The GAO found delays in the delivery of special education services at 44 of DODEA’s 114 overseas schools during the 2022–23 school year. In six of those cases, more than a year passed before services were restored. Both parents and providers told investigators that delays and disruptions in services often harmed students’ academic progress.
Amici File Brief in the 5th Circuit in Support of Parent’s Win in U.S. District Court
COPAA and The Texas Organization of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (TOPAA) filed an amicus brief in the 5th Circuit in North East ISD v. I.M. on Friday, April 11, 2025.
IDEA mandates that children with disabilities receive a FAPE tailored to their unique academic and functional needs. The Supreme Court in Endrew F. clarified that an Individualized Education Program (IEP) must be reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances. This standard requires ambitious and challenging goals, ensuring meaningful progress for students with disabilities, including functional goals critical to their educational advancement.
The factors used by the Fifth Circuit to evaluate FAPE compliance, as set forth in Cypress-Fairbanks Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Michael F., 118 F.3d 245 (5th Cir. 1997), must be applied in alignment with Endrew F.’s substantive standard. The first and fourth factors are in dispute in this case. Specifically, the first factor must assess whether the IEP includes appropriately ambitious goals and challenging objectives tailored to the student’s unique circumstances. The fourth factor must evaluate whether the academic and non-academic benefits provided are sufficient in light of the child’s individual needs and potential for growth. In this case, the intensity and frequency of services are at issue; the parents requested that ESY services be provided for a full school day during any break of three days or more whereas the school district proposed just six weeks of ESY services for four hours a day. The parents were concerned that without more continuous education, their son regressed in the critical areas of toileting and elopement.
For students like I.M., whose educational programming necessarily includes functional goals related to elopement and toileting, progress on these goals is critical. To provide FAPE, therefore, the IEP must appropriately address those needs. The district court correctly emphasized the importance of these functional goals, recognizing that ignoring them would undermine the individualized nature of I.M.’s IEP.
The district court correctly determined that the Northeast Independent School District (NEISD or District) failed to provide a FAPE to I.M., a non-verbal autistic child receiving special education services in a self-contained life skills classroom, because I.M. was not progressing on functional goals. Amici supports the district court’s correct interpretation and application of the Endrew F. decision in this case, securing I.M.’s right to a FAPE.
Selene Almazan, legal director and Amicus Co-Chairs, Catherine Merino Reisman and Ellen Saideman drafted and filed the brief in support of the parents. The parents are represented by COPAA member Yvonnilda Muniz.
Students, additional parents join lawsuit challenging Department of Education’s abandoning of civil rights investigations
On April 10, 2025 multiple parents and students, including COPAA members, from various states across the country have joined a federal lawsuit that seeks to restore the functions of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and reverse recent actions that effectively eliminate OCR’s ability to process and investigate civil rights complaints, according to an amended complaint filed.
Each of the additional plaintiffs in the suit, filed by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) and Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA), have pending claims with OCR alleging discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or disability. The initial lawsuit was filed March 14.
The amended complaint was filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the four students and five parents now joining the lawsuit, in addition to the original two parent plaintiffs and COPAA. Following substantial cuts to OCR, the lawsuit asks the judge to order the Department to restore OCR’s capacity to fully conduct civil rights investigations as required by law, and for OCR to provide periodic updates to the court about its efforts to process and investigate civil rights complaints.
The lawsuit details how OCR effectively deserted its core function of investigating complaints from students and families who allege discrimination and/or harassment on the basis of race, sex, and disability. Since March, the agency has been devastated by mass layoffs and closures of seven out of 12 of OCR’s regional offices, which have obstructed families’ access to OCR’s complaint and investigation process.
The Department of Education has provided no information or apparent plan for how student and family rights will be protected. The plaintiffs allege that the actions of the Department of Education and OCR violate the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
White House Directs Federal Agencies to Bypass Public Notice Process
In a memo to Federal Agency heads last week, the White House instructed agencies to undertake a 60-day review process to “identify unlawful and potentially unlawful regulations” and take immediate steps to eliminate and/or finalize rules “without notice and comment”, and where doing so is “consistent with the good cause exception in the Administrative Procedure Act that clearly exceeds the agency’s statutory authority or is otherwise unlawful.” The memo advises agencies to give priority to regulations in conflict with key U.S. Supreme Court decisions that support agencies in undertaking such efforts. The list includes the Court’s recent Loper Bright ruling, which overruled the Chevron framework. While most of the implementing regulations for Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are permanently codified in federal statute, COPAA is closely monitoring the impact of the new directive on IDEA and related laws.
House ED Committee Blocks Move to Divulge ED Reorganization Plans
On Wednesday, April 9, the House Education and Workforce Committee voted along party lines to adversely report H. Res. 237, a resolution to require the Administration to provide documentation of their plans to reorganize the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The resolution instructs ED and the White House to provide all documents regarding closures, staffing reductions, and activities tied to downsizing. It also seeks ED’s plans to fulfill its obligations under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and other relevant statutes if ED were to close. While technically not a “no” vote, an adverse report sends the resolution to the House floor with a recommendation that it should not pass.
Court Pauses ED’s DEI Directive Requiring State Certification of Compliance
On April 10, a U.S. District Court required the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to temporarily halt any action related to a directive issued on April 3. The new certification required States to sign an assurance to document that all K-12 schools comply with requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and that “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) efforts do not exist within their curriculums in order to receive federal funding under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The court’s emergency agreement pauses the new certification requirement while the legal challenge in ACLU, NEA et. al v. U.S. Department of Education continues.
Students with disabilities lost a helpful program to DOGE cuts
NPR
If you visit the website for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), you’ll find a “Wall of Receipts” listing more than 7,000 federal contracts it has terminated. Little detail is provided, besides the “savings” from each cancellation, and it’s hard to determine the cost or collateral damage of all these cuts. But for some families, there has been a cost. One of these programs, cancelled on Feb. 10, was called Charting My Path for Future Success. It was a research-based effort to help students with disabilities make the sometimes difficult transition from high school into college or the world of work and self-sufficiency. A U.S. Education Department spokesperson, Madi Biedermann, told NPR in a statement that Charting My Path was a research project “with questionable implementation” and that too much of the program’s $43 million cost, by DOGE’s accounting, was going to contractors, not kids. But some of the people closest to the program – families, educators, and researchers – say Charting My Path could have helped millions of vulnerable teens.
Disability Advocates Tell Appropriators: Do Not Move IDEA to HHS or Dismantle ED
On Friday April 4, COPAA along with 47 disability advocacy partners in the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities (CCD) sent a letter to Capitol Hill asking Senate and House appropriations and authorizing committee leaders to “take no action” through the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bills” or through other legislative proposals to “weaken, dismantle and/or move key education programs” from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to Health and Human Services (HHS). Specifically, the disability community told Republican and Democrat Chairs and Ranking Members that any proposal to move programs authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other education laws “segregates students with disabilities from school-based resources and support” promoting a “medical model of disability that could only lead to stigmatizing, segregating, and “othering” children with disabilities.” CCD also notes that such actions will “segregate students with disabilities from bipartisan programs authorized under [other critically important] education and career access laws…that were intentionally aligned by Congress to support educational equity and access for students with disabilities to K-16 education, career training, and employment opportunities alongside their peers.” To learn more about the Administration’s executive action proposing to move IDEA programs to HHS and to access resources, visit COPAA’s new web page.
9.5 million students with disabilities affected by Trump’s education cuts, senators warn
13newsnow.com
Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have joined 19 other lawmakers in the Senate in signing a letter addressed to the U.S. Secretary of Education, expressing their concern that without the Department of Education, students with disabilities will not have access to education. The senators say to Sec. Linda McMahon that shuttering the department will “cause immense harm to all students, and especially students with disabilities,” because their families rely on federal funding for critical programs that are administered by the department. In 1979, before the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was divided into two separate departments, findings indicated “that this department structure was inefficient and resulted in a lack of attention to public education. The Department of Education is the only agency with an existing institutional infrastructure and a staff of subject matter experts dedicated to ensuring equal educational opportunity for children and students with disabilities.”
Dems, advocates challenge Trump’s HHS move
POLITICO
President Donald Trump wants to move a crucial program for children with disabilities into the Department of Health and Human Services. Special education advocates and Democrats warn that his plan is illegal, Chelsea reports with POLITICO’s Mackenzie Wilkes. The IDEA program, which serves 7.5 million students under a decades-old law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, to protect children with disabilities, was housed in the Department of Education, which Trump dismantled last month. As the Trump administration tries to find a new home for IDEA at HHS, special education advocates insist the president can’t do it without Congress’ approval. “Unless they do something illegal, they cannot just move special education to HHS,” said Stephanie Smith Lee, former director of the Office of Special Education Programs in George W. Bush’s Education Department.
‘Really scared’: Parents of kids with disabilities confront Education Department chaos
Idaho Capital Sun
As President Donald Trump takes drastic steps to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, disability advocates are worried about whether the agency can carry out its responsibilities to serve students with disabilities. Representatives of several disability advocacy groups cited “chaos,” “fear,” and “uncertainty” in describing the situation to States Newsroom. They said there’s a lack of clarity about both proposed changes within the realm of special education services and the overall impact of sweeping shifts at the agency, calling into question whether the department can deliver on its congressionally mandated guarantees for students with disabilities. “It’s only been a few weeks since these things started happening, so I don’t think we’re seeing any of the effects trickle down right now, but we do have parents reaching out to us, calling and feeling really scared,” said Robyn Linscott, director of education and family policy at The Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Could IEPs become more frustrating for students with disabilities?
USA today
Students with disabilities face ongoing challenges with IEPs, highlighting frustrations from parents, schools, and children. Many parents report difficulties navigating the complex and inconsistent nature of IEPs, which are intended to provide tailored educational plans under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The proposed closure of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Special Education Programs (OSEP could further impact support and oversight for students with disabilities, leaving many without the critical services they need.