Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
Department of Education Requires Schools to Eliminate Race Consideration in Student Discipline
Today, in new guidance issued to educational institutions via a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), Kim Richey, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, told schools that discipline policies must “treat students even-handedly and must neither favor nor disfavor any student based on their race.” To support the removal of the requirement to consider race in the discipline of students, the DCL states, “neither Title VI nor the Constitution requires the use of race in student discipline and that the use or consideration of race in student discipline violates Title VI and the Constitution absent truly extraordinary circumstances that satisfy strict scrutiny.” According to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) press release, the guidance follows ED’s rulemaking in July that removed several disparate impact provisions from Federal regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI). Along with the new guidance, ED also announced that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened two Title VI investigations into school districts that allegedly require personnel to consider race when making disciplinary decisions.
COPAA reminds members and colleagues that Dear Colleague Letters are neither dispositive nor binding. In addition, Section 618(d) of the IDEA and its implementing regulations (34 C.F.R. §§ 300.646–300.647) continue to mandate that states annually collect and analyze data to determine whether significant disproportionality based on race or ethnicity exists in the state and in its local educational agencies (LEAs).
Special education state complaints jump nearly 50%
K-12 Dive
State education agencies saw a 46% jump in the number of written state complaints in special education during the 2025-26 school year compared to the year before, according to new survey responses from 31 states. The self-reported survey data, collected by the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, shows that during the 2024-25 school year there were 7,907 written state complaints. That number rose to 11,523 in the 2025-26 school year…
Shut out of special education, this Texas family is fighting back
The Nation
In March 2020, Courtney and Spencer Morey moved to Aledo, Texas, a rapidly expanding suburb of Fort Worth, because of the stellar reputation of its schools. But about three years later, when their daughter Annie, who has Down syndrome, was supposed to start preschool, she was denied the education that is guaranteed to her by law under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), even though no one from the school had ever met her. I met the Moreys on an unusually warm afternoon last spring. Dressed in white shorts, a sleeveless red sweater, and modest jewelry, Courtney waved me into her well-air-conditioned SUV, and she and I drove to pick up Annie from KinderFrogs, an early-intervention program for children with disabilities on the campus of nearby Texas Christian University. Annie has attended KinderFrogs ever since the district’s requirements for an assessment of her special-education needs—including an IQ test—prevented her from enrolling in its preschool program…
Meet the Catholic schools serving students with special needs
America Magazine
In 2014, 3.5 percent of students in N.C.E.A. schools were reported as having been diagnosed with a disability. Today that figure is 9.8 percent. Ms. MacDonald said N.C.E.A. has established a task force that is developing a directory of schools with promising programs. Some schools lean toward a more segregated model, in which special needs students remain mostly in their own classrooms, while others adopt a more integrated approach. Then there are the rare U.S. Catholic schools that serve only students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The students’ abilities span a wide spectrum. “We see good things happening in pockets,” according to Michael Boyle, executive director of the Herrmann Center for Innovative Catholic Education at St. Louis University. “And I think that’s part of the problem. As a universal church, we should be seeing something much more comprehensive and extensive.”…
Dyscalculia affects almost as many students as dyslexia. What can districts do?
K-12 Dive
Between 3% to 7% of all children, adolescents and adults have dyscalculia, according to an estimate published in 2019 by the National Institutes of Health. The CRPE brief describes dyscalculia as “one of the most common learning disabilities.” Up to 60% of students with dyscalculia also have co-occurring challenges — most commonly dyslexia and ADHD. This learning disability is more than “struggling in math,” CRPE said. Dyscalculia is defined by “severe and persistent” difficulty in processing numbers, among other issues, that is separate from intellectual disability and cannot be explained by inadequate instruction, sensory difficulties, or other conditions.
There is currently a lack of consensus on how to define, identify and support dyscalculia and other math learning disabilities, according to CRPE’s national scan of states’ math policies and bills. While a handful of states, including North Carolina and West Virginia, refer to the learning disability in recent bills, they don’t include provisions requiring screening or diagnosis. Some states — Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Rhode Island — have proposed or enacted mandates for universal dyscalculia screening of students within typically younger age ranges…
As the Education Department Is dismantled, who protects the right to learn?
The 74
A first grader reads an entire page on her own after months of specialized instruction. A middle school student with autism delivers his first classroom presentation. These moments are not medical breakthroughs, they are educational ones. Unfortunately, our history — and too often our present — shows that many students still do not experience classrooms where educational expertise and civil rights protections work together. When a student with a disability is singled out and ridiculed because of disability-related behaviors, or when students with unevaluated disabilities are suspended instead of receiving assessment and support, their rights to educational opportunity are being denied in ways our nation’s laws have long prohibited. Every delay in identifying and correcting these failures deprives students of educational opportunities they cannot recover. Students cannot afford confusion about who is responsible for protecting those rights. The Trump administration’s agreement to move responsibility for administering the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act from the U.S. Department of Education to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is based on the mistaken assumption that educational rights can simply be transferred between agencies as an operational function. In reality, doing so risks weakening the protections IDEA was designed to guarantee…
Education Department defends controversial special education shakeup
K-12 Dive
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, during a keynote address on Tuesday, emphasized the federal government’s obligation to enforce protections for students with disabilities, while touting the Trump administration’s efforts to give states, districts and families more flexibility and authority over how special education programs operate. The Education Department is doing “everything in our power to create lasting improvements that support your state and local efforts to make systems that are successful for parents, educators and communities serving individuals with disabilities,” McMahon told 1,250 attendees — project directors and program staff who support special education programs nationwide — at the annual conference of the department’s Office of Special Education Programs”…
Although McMahon projected optimism, there has been significant pushback on the interagency agreements, particularly the OSERS-HHS one. Critics say the changes will cause confusion and reduce accountability for state and district compliance to IDEA. Those opposing the OSERS-HHS partnership include organizations representing special educators and disability rights and civil rights advocates, as well as some members of Congress…
NJ: Mom advocating for special ed kids was arrested at N.J. meeting — then the city backed down
Yahoo News
A Jersey City mother who was escorted from a school board meeting in handcuffs and charged with defiant trespass was cleared of wrongdoing in court earlier this week. Jersey City Municipal Court Judge Cynthia Jackson dismissed the charge against the parent, the mother of a special education student, on Tuesday after the prosecutor said the city would not proceed with the case, according to the Jersey City Times. The mother was handcuffed and arrested in May after she allegedly shouted from the audience and refused to voluntarily leave the school board meeting. The arrest prompted criticism from several officials in Jersey City, including at least three city council members and two school board members. “The government attempted to shut down her point of view by arresting her and attempting to chill not only her speech, but the speech of others,” Leo J. Hurley, one of the mother’s two attorneys, told NJ.com on Wednesday…
Senate Bills Intend to Amend Education Laws, Including IDEA
Following the successful vote on S. 5046 — to prevent the move of four education offices and their programs outside of the Department of Education, including the Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee continued to discuss and favorably report several bills that seek to amend federal education laws. Two bills are supported by COPAA. The first is the Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower Act (RISE Act), (S.3589), which passed unanimously, 22-0. RISE would amend the Higher Education Act to allow students with disabilities who matriculate in postsecondary education to use a valid Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Section 504 Plan as documentation when seeking accommodations. The second is the Reading Excellence and Achievement for Development (READ) Act (S. 4689), which passed by a vote of 20-2. The bill amends the Comprehensive Literacy State Development Program in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) by updating schools’ access to literacy grants, mandating early reading screenings [where grants apply], expanding teacher training, and supporting students at risk for dyslexia.
Unfortunately, the 21st Century Dyslexia Act (S. 3010) passed 12–10 with support from Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) alongside Republicans, despite notable opposition raised by Ranking Member Sanders (I-VT), Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) who, in support of COPAA and the entire disability community, filed two unvoted amendments to strike the bill entirely. For years, COPAA and others have raised significant concerns about the legislation and, despite extensive outreach, have been rebuffed by the bill’s author, Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA), in efforts to negotiate a better bill. If enacted, the dyslexia bill will create a new category in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for dyslexia and will place a new definition of dyslexia in the law that mandates IQ achievement discrepancy [and IQ testing] to determine the existence of dyslexia—a practice Congress rejected in 2004. During the discussion, Murphy highlighted national and state-level opposition: “No one I’ve met or spoken to wants this. In fact, my home state and 9 other states prohibit the use of IQ testing to identify dyslexia, 24 states permit IQ testing but do not require it, 10 states permit but discourage it, and 10 states do not allow districts to use it. So, Connecticut would have to change the law and use this method, a method which we got rid of federally in 2004.” Following the vote, COPAA signed a statement led by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, highlighting broad and deep opposition to the bill. HELP also considered a handful of additional bills; however, with no major education legislation moving through the Senate, the future of any of the education bills passed last week is unknown.
COPAA-Endorsed Bipartisan Bill Moves Through Senate Committee
Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) gaveled in last Thursday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup with laser-focused determination: to advance his 21st Century Dyslexia Act and honor his pledge to Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) by bringing to a vote a measure prohibiting the transfer of key U.S. Department of Education (ED) offices to other federal agencies. The Committee accomplished both goals. In a 13–9 vote, lawmakers advanced S. 5046, a bipartisan bill preventing the transfer of four critical divisions—the Office of Indian Education, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), and the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE)— to other Federal agencies. Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined a unified Democratic bloc to secure the bill’s passage out of committee. “This bill is straightforward,” Collins said. “It keeps important landmark education programs at the Department of Education, where Congress specifically put them and where they belong.” Under the leadership of Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the bill was successfully amended to require the Secretary of Education to provide Congress with a cost analysis of each interagency agreement (IAA) and to submit quarterly reports to the Senate HELP and Appropriations Committees. In noting why this was necessary, Murray said, “Secretary McMahon is duplicating the work her Department was already [doing] by asking other agencies to do it instead and claiming somehow this makes government ‘more efficient.’ Fine. Prove it.” Murray also offered an amendment to prohibit the transfer of any ED office and one to prohibit the move of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice; however, both were shot down by Republicans, including Collins, who spoke in favor of OCR’s planned move. While HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) did not vote in favor of the bipartisan bill, he did discuss his alternative bill, the Special Education Administration Protection Act (S. 5038), which would prevent ED from moving OSERS to the Health and Human Services agency but would have allowed OSERS to be moved to another agency. Given the evident support for the bipartisan bill, Cassidy did not call S. 5038 forward. Following the vote on S. 5046, Denise Marshall, COPAA CEO, issued a short statement to congratulate the HELP Committee and urge COPAA members — whose Senator voted in favor — to thank them:
“Thank you to every COPAA member who urged Congress to stop illegal transfers of education programs outside the Department of Education. Thanks to your efforts, the Senate HELP Committee passed S. 5046. The bill protects offices overseeing elementary, secondary, special, vocational rehabilitation, Indian, and postsecondary education from transfer to other federal agencies. Specifically, it prevents the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) from moving to Health and Human Services (HHS) or any other agency. We especially thank the Senators who led the bill negotiations that led to agreement: Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). If you live in the listed states your Senator voted for the bill. Please take a moment to thank your Senator for supporting every child with a disability and their family. AK(Murkowski), CO (Hickenlooper), CT (Murphy), DE (Blunt-Rochester), MA (Markey), MD (Alsobrooks), ME (Collins), NH (Hassan), NJ (Kim), VA (Kaine), VT (Sanders), WA (Murray), WI (Baldwin)”
75% of educators expect student behavior to be a challenge this year. What Else?
Education Week
As educators prepare for a new school year, concerns about students’ behavior, achievement, and well-being are top of mind, even as schools and districts face ongoing challenges from financial uncertainty and political headwinds. The EdWeek Research Center surveyed more than 1,000 teachers and school and district administrators about major challenges they expect to face in the 2026-27 school year. Given a list of 27 options, the largest proportion of respondents, 75%, identified student behavior as a major concern, followed closely by student engagement at 70%. The top five most common responses to the survey question, administered from April 29 to June 22, related directly to students. The sixth most common answer was budget uncertainty, which 42% of respondents expect to be a major concern. The finding comes as declining enrollment, strained state budgets, inflation, and threats to federal funding have led many districts to make tough budgeting calls—including layoffs and school closures—and brace for continued uncertainty…
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Note: Special education ranked 7th among 27 concerns noted by educators.
Senate Commerce Committee to Mark-Up Children’s Online Safety Bills
Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) has announced the mark-up of several children’s online safety bills in the Senate Commerce Committee next week. The bills included in the notice are: the SCREEN Act (S.737) sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT); the Kids Online Safety Act (S. 1748), championed by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT); the Youth AI Privacy Act (S. 4199), sponsored by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA); the CHATBOT Act (S.4407) sponsored by Cruz and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI); and the Children’s Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act (S.5171), sponsored by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
Read the bills and view the mark-up here.
Education Bills Move Through Senate Committee, McMahon Responds
Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) gaveled in Thursday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup with laser-focused determination: to advance his 21st Century Dyslexia Act and honor his pledge to Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) by bringing to a vote a measure prohibiting the transfer of key U.S. Department of Education (ED) offices to other federal agencies. The Committee accomplished both goals. In a 13–9 vote, lawmakers advanced S. 5046, a bipartisan bill preventing the transfer of four critical divisions—the Office of Indian Education, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), and the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE)— to other Federal agencies. Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined a unified Democratic bloc to secure the bill’s passage out of committee. “This bill is straightforward,” Collins said. “It keeps important landmark education programs at the Department of Education where Congress specifically put them and where they belong.” Under the leadership of Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the bill was successfully amended to include a requirement for the Secretary of Education to provide a cost analysis of each interagency agreement (IAA) to Congress and to provide quarterly reports to the Senate HELP and Appropriations Committees. In noting why this was necessary, Murray said, “Secretary McMahon is duplicating the work her Department was already [doing] by asking other agencies to do it instead and claiming somehow this makes government ‘more efficient.’ Fine. Prove it.” Murray also offered an amendment to prohibit the transfer of any ED office, and one to prohibit the move of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to Justice; however, both were shot down by Republicans, including Collins who spoke in favor of OCR’s planned move. While HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) did not vote in favor of the bipartisan bill, he did discuss his alternative bill, the Special Education Administration Protection Act (S. 5038), which would prevent ED from moving OSERS to the Health and Human Services agency. Given the evident support for the bipartisan bill, Cassidy did not call S. 5038 forward. Following the favorable vote, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and other cabinet members sent a joint letter to congressional leadership defending the Administration’s IAAs that transfer core education functions to other federal departments.
The Committee proceeded to discuss and favorably report several bills that seek to amend federal education laws including the Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower Act (RISE) Act (S.3589) which passed unanimously, 22-0. RISE would amend the Higher Education Act to allow students with disabilities who matriculate into postsecondary education to use a valid Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or Section 504 Plan for documentation when seeking accommodations. HELP also passed the Reading Excellence and Achievement for Development (READ) Act (S. 4689) by a vote of 20-2. The bill amends the Comprehensive Literacy State Development Program in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) by updating schools’ access to literacy grants, mandating early reading screenings [where grants apply], and expanding teacher training and supports students at risk for dyslexia. Although the 21st Century Dyslexia Act (S. 3010) passed 12–10 with support from Senator John Hickenlooper (D CO) alongside Republicans, it faced notable opposition. Ranking Member Sanders (I-VT) spoke against the bill in his opening remarks and Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) filed two unvoted amendments to strike the bill entirely, echoing the disability community’s concerns over creating a separate IDEA category for dyslexia and mandating IQ testing—a practice Congress rejected in 2004. Murphy highlighted national and state-level opposition: “No one I’ve met or spoken to wants this. In fact, my home state and 9 other states prohibit the use of IQ testing to identify dyslexia, 24 states permit IQ testing but do not require it, 10 states permit but discourage it, and 10 states do not allow districts to use it. So, Connecticut would have to change the law and use this method, a method which we got rid of federally in 2004.” Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) also spoke against the bill. HELP also considered a handful of additional bills, however, with no major education legislation moving through the Senate, the future of the bills is unknown.
View the mark-up here.
Read Secretary McMahon’s letter here.
Senate Funding Bill Could Alter Key Rule on Federal Grants
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has indicated that plans are taking shape for a round of votes next week before the Senate departs for the August recess. Top priority is taking up the short-term funding bill (aka continuing resolution) passed by the House earlier this month that would fund the federal government into December. Appropriations Chairperson Susan Collins (R-ME) said text for the continuing resolution (CR) could be unveiled as early as this afternoon with a possible vote on Monday. The Senate CR may differ from the House as several Senators, including Chair Collins, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and all Senate Democrats want to attach language that would block the Administration from finalizing a plan to put political appointees in charge of approving grants. “I have made very clear that I oppose the new [OMB] rule,” Collins told reporters. “So, I hope we’ll take advantage of this opportunity to delay it. But that’s up to the leadership.” Thune told reporters, “There are a handful of issues under consideration, and I’m hoping that both sides can come together and figure the last couple of remaining issues out.” Thune must also determine how to proceed on the $95 billion budget reconciliation measure passed by the House. The next step is for the Senate to issue instructions to several committees, initiating a politically charged process that could take weeks or months. Senate leadership knows this delay will upset the President, who wants the budget bill passed immediately.
Senate Committee to Consider Bipartisan Bill Protecting Special Education
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee has scheduled a markup for Thursday, July 30 to vote on an unprecedented bipartisan agreement that prohibits the transfer of certain offices and functions of the Department of Education (ED) to other Federal agencies. The primary bill under consideration, S. 5046, was negotiated by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) and explicitly prohibits the Administration from transferring four ED offices—the Office of Indian Education, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), and the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE)—out of ED. Concurrently, HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced his own proposal, the Special Education Administration Protection Act (S. 5038), which would prevent the executive branch from moving OSERS into the Department of Health and Human Services, while leaving open the possibility of transferring the office to alternative agencies. Alongside these bills, HELP will also mark-up the Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower Act (RISE) Act (HR.3939/S.3589), the Reading Excellence and Achievement for Development (READ) Act (S. 4689), the 21st Century Dyslexia Act (HR 5769/S.3010), the College Transparency Act (S.2511), and several other bills.