Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
States AGs Issue Joint Guidance to Counter Federal Dear Colleague Letter on DEI
On March 5th, a coalition of attorneys general (AGs) from fifteen states issued Joint Guidance for higher education and K-12 institutions that clarifies the law regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prompted by a recent Executive Order and a Dear Colleague letter from the Trump Administration, the Joint Guidance “addresses the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision on race conscious admissions policies at institutions of higher education and clarifies the legal landscape for Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) and K-12 schools operating in our states as they work to advance educational goals and access to educational opportunities.” Especially helpful are the questions and answers (Q&As) posed at the end of the document. Q&As cover topics such as: promoting safe and supportive K-12 school environments and preparing all students for college or careers. The Joint Guidance was signed by the Attorneys General of Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
Trump Education Secretary Confirmed Despite Special Ed Concerns
Disability Scoop
The nation has a new Secretary of Education, and she’s angling to free her department from its special education obligations. The U.S. Senate voted 51 to 45 along party lines this week to confirm Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education. The move comes despite opposition from many disability advocates concerned by McMahon’s limited knowledge of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and her plans for the special education program. During confirmation hearings, the former WWE executive was short on specifics when asked what IDEA promises students with disabilities, and she repeatedly suggested to senators that oversight of the program should no longer be housed within the Education Department. “Special education, I think it very well could go back to HHS where it started,” McMahon said, referencing the Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, McMahon proposed moving the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which handles complaints of disability discrimination in schools, to the Justice Department.
DOGE education cuts hit students with disabilities, literacy research
Chalkbeat
When teens and young adults with disabilities in California’s Poway Unified School District heard about a new opportunity to get extra help planning for life after high school, nearly every eligible student signed up. The program, known as Charting My Path for Future Success, aimed to fill a major gap in education research about what kinds of support give students nearing graduation the best shot at living independently, finding work, or continuing their studies. Students with disabilities finish college at much lower rates than their non-disabled peers and often struggle to tap into state employment programs for adults with disabilities, said Stacey McCrath-Smith, a director of special education at Poway Unified, which had 135 students participating in the program. So the extra help, which included learning how to track goals on a tool designed for high schoolers with disabilities, was much needed. Charting My Path launched earlier this school year in Poway Unified and 12 other school districts. The salaries of 61 school staff nationwide, and the training they received to work with nearly 1,100 high schoolers with disabilities for a year and a half, was paid for by the U.S. Department of Education. Then, the Trump administration pulled the plug.
How Department of Education cuts could hurt resources for students with disabilities
PBS News
Fourteen-year-old Spencer Nichols loves taking care of his farm animals at home in Macon, Georgia. It’s a break after a long school day, where he has little autonomy. Spencer has Down syndrome. Almost the entire day, he’s in a small classroom with other students with disabilities. His mother, Pam Nichols, says he’s denied the same chance to succeed as his non-disabled peers. She says he can’t pick his own elective classes and isn’t progressing like he should. Pam says Spencer should be in more general education classes, but his middle school lacks the resources and staff to support students with disabilities. “Unfortunately, his one class is science that he is allowed to be in the gen ed classroom. They had a science test. I messaged the teacher, and I said, What am I supposed to be focused on for Spencer? And she said, we will have Spencer color during the science test. I said, well, you don’t understand. I want him to learn this.”
Why a Department of Education closure is concern for students with disabilities
WKMS
Parents of kids with disabilities are used to fighting – fighting for understanding, for acceptance, and for resources. That is why so many of them fear the possible elimination of the Department of Education. That’s the federal agency that distributes federal funds meant to help educate kids with disabilities. Now, to be clear, eliminating the Department of Education does not mean the funding will go away entirely. Still, many parents are very concerned. One of those parents is Kristy Hedler. Her son, Kellen, has Down syndrome and receives special education services at school. Kristy is also a parent services advocate at the nonprofit Oklahoma Parents for Student Achievement.
Update on Proposed Medicaid Cuts
The House and Senate still have their different versions of the reconciliation resolutions. To use reconciliation, the House and the Senate must agree on a single approach, and they are negotiating. Republican Leadership will have to walk a line between factions that don’t think the proposed cuts to Medicaid went far enough and those that are concerned about the impact of Medicaid cuts on their constituents and the states they represent. The next step is for the Senate to take up the House-passed budget, likely making amendments, which may happen in late March, after the joint recess.
Republicans are feeling the pressure. Medicaid is popular, among both Trump and Harris voters, and Republicans do not want to admit that they are voting to take health care away from people. We have heard repeatedly that some Republican House staff are telling constituents and advocates that they did not vote to cut Medicaid, but instead merely voted to start the reconciliation process. Make no mistake–the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released a report confirming that the House budget resolution would require deep cuts to Medicaid.
Meanwhile, over the last two weeks, state and local officials have raised alarm over the impact of proposed Medicaid cuts, driving home that Medicaid is not a red state, purple state, blue state issue, and that federal cuts to Medicaid create huge budget holes that states cannot fill.
Republican Medicaid Cuts Could Shutter Rural Hospitals, Maternity Care
Washington Post
Republican-led Medicaid cuts could severely impact rural hospitals and maternity care services, potentially driving essential healthcare access in underserved regions to a breaking point. Rural communities, already facing healthcare disparities, could be hit hardest by these proposed cuts.
Republican Voters Support Medicaid but Want Work Requirements, Poll Finds
New York Times
A poll reveals that while many Republican voters support Medicaid, they also advocate for implementing work requirements for recipients. However, a significant misconception exists, with 62% of voters incorrectly believing that most Medicaid enrollees are unemployed, even though the vast majority are employed.
GOP Must Cut Medicaid or Medicare to Achieve Budget Goals, CBO Finds
The Washington Post
In its recent report, the CBO confirms that Republicans must cut either Medicaid or Medicare to reach their budgetary targets. This challenge highlights the political and economic difficulties Republicans face in trying to rein in spending while managing the growing costs of healthcare programs.
Republicans Need to Cut Medicaid to Hit Budget Savings Target, CBO Finds
The Hill
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicates that Republicans will need to reduce Medicaid spending in order to meet their fiscal savings goals. As the GOP continues to struggle with rising healthcare costs, Medicaid has become a primary target for cuts to balance the budget.
McMahon Sworn in as Secretary of Education
Last night, following the Senate’s confirmation vote of 51-45, Linda McMahon was sworn in as the Secretary of Education. “I intend to make good on President Trump’s promise to return education to the states, …and free American students from the education bureaucracy through school choice,” McMahon said in a prepared statement. The newly minted Secretary is expected to oversee immediate efforts to implement President Trump’s executive orders and policy vision for the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) and will work to help secure confirmations for pending ED nominees including Penny Schwinn as deputy secretary, Kimberly Richey to lead the Office for Civil Rights, Nicholas Kent to be undersecretary of Education, and Kirsten Baesler to be assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education. President Trump has not yet named nominees for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services or the Office of Special Education. COPAA and NCYL have asked the Office of Civil Rights to provide answers and transparency.
Appropriations Committee Hearing Focuses on K-12 Funding, Including IDEA
Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) held a hearing to discuss investments in elementary education. Testimony was heard from Ms. Ginny Gentles, Director, Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies; Dr. Lindsey Burke, Director, Education Policy, The Heritage Foundation and author of the education section of Project 2025; Mr. Robert Kim, Executive Director, Education Law Center; and Ms. Starlee Coleman, CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. School choice, student performance, special education funding, and block grants to allocate federal education funding to states all emerged as major topics. Dr. Burke specifically recommended that oversight of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Title I should move to Health and Human Services (HHS), data collection for the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) to the Census Bureau, and Indian Education programs to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Mr. Kim reminded the committee that block granting Title I and IDEA funding (and freeing states of key federal requirements) would jeopardize students’ free and fair access to public education. He also urged that due to our nation’s history, students with disabilities would be particularly vulnerable
ED Launches Portal to End Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Releases New FAQ
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has launched EndDEI.Gov, a public portal to submit reports of discrimination based on race or sex in publicly funded K -12 schools. Citing federal statutes including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, Section 504, and other laws, ED notes that the portal provides an “outlet” to report “illegal discriminatory practices” at institutions of learning and that information shared [via the portal] will be used to identify potential areas for investigation. ED also released an FAQ in connection with a February 14 Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) to educational institutions receiving federal funds that notified them that they must cease using race preferences and stereotypes as a factor in their admissions, hiring, promotion, scholarships, and more. As noted in COPAA news last week, several prominent attorneys wrote a detailed letter disputing the legality of the DCL.
McMahon confirmed as education secretary
K-12 Dive
Linda McMahon won confirmation as U.S. education secretary on Monday, gaining Senate approval in a51-45 vote along party lines. McMahon’s approval had been expected given the Republican majority, albeit thin, in the Senate. President Donald Trump nominated McMahon to lead his long-promised downsizing of the U.S. Department of Education. McMahon, a former administrator of the Small Business Administration and former president and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, said during her Feb. 13 Senate confirmation hearing that she was open to reforming the department but wanted to study specific programs before making commitments for change. Of special education oversight, McMahon said, “I’m not sure that it’s not better served in HHS, but I don’t know.” She did say funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Title I programming for low-income schools, and other programs established in statute would need to continue even if the Education Department were shuttered.
Trump’s war on DEI comes for programs helping autistic students find jobs in STEM
The Independent
Stassun told The Independent that as recently as January, the Frist Center was told it would receive a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a model for including neurodivergent people across engineering schools in the United States. The grant was supposed to be part of the Broadening Participation in Engineering program, which focuses on including a diverse array of people in engineering. But because the grant was not officially activated before Trump put in place an executive order limiting DEI programs and before Elon Musk began the process of eliminating various programs as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the grant was suspended. Stassun said he understood the suspension came as a result of the program having “bad DEIA” words such as “neurodiversity,” “inclusion,” “disabilities,” and “accessibility.”