Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
Trump’s DEI policies pose risk to students with disabilities
The Hill
Children with disabilities are getting swept up in the Trump administration’s crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and its push to end the Education Department, advocates say. So far, the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) biggest contract canceled at the Department of Education involved analyzing programs for students with disabilities, and the same DEI programs President Trump is seeking to outlaw often provide accommodations for disabled students. DEI is also sometimes presented as DEIA, with the last letter standing for accessibility. “The whole reason students with disabilities are able to be in the classroom and get access to an equitable education is because of DEIA efforts,” said Robyn Linscott, director of education and family policy at the Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for individuals with disabilities. “I think people need to raise their voices to their elected officials because Congress has permanently authorized many of these laws and the funding that go with them. So, while the administration may cancel some discretionary funding, they cannot change, for example, the funding formulas under IDEA that go to states without Congress’s approval,” said Denise Marshall, the CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates.
Special education enrollment climbs to nearly 8M
K-12 Dive
The number of students with disabilities, ages 3-21, could jump by about 1 million students between 2021 and 2025 if the current rate of increase continues, according to federal data and an analysis by The Advocacy Institute. By comparison, it took about 20 years — from 1997 to 2017 — to add 1 million students eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, said Candace Cortiella, founder and director of The Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of people with disabilities. But pre-K-12 grade schools gained 539,617 students eligible for IDEA services between fall 2021 and fall 2023, the most recent year for which data is available from the U.S. Department of Education. From fall 2022 to fall 2023, the number of IDEA-eligible students increased by 3.4% to a total of 7,892,433.
As GOP Eyes Medicaid Cuts, Trump Tries to Avoid the Political Third Rails
Washington Post
Former President Trump is seeking to avoid the political pitfalls surrounding proposed Medicaid cuts while aligning with Republican fiscal goals. His cautious approach reflects the complex political landscape in which cutting Medicaid could alienate key voter groups.
Republicans Once Maligned Medicaid. Now Some See It as a Program Too Big to Touch
AP News
Once a target for cuts by many Republicans, Medicaid has become a program that some now view as too integral to the nation’s healthcare system to alter. The growing scale and importance of Medicaid have shifted the party’s approach, making it a political issue that many Republicans are now reluctant to tackle.
House and Senate Hold Hearings on Online Exploitation and Trafficking
Within the past week, both chambers of Congress have held hearings on child safety and online protection against sexual abuse and exploitation. The House hearing spotlighted how to best protect victims of human trafficking, especially domestic sex trafficking, and how to halt Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Witnesses for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance presented evidence to dispel misconceptions about victims. “The truth about domestic minor sex trafficking is that for girls of color and LGBTQ youth, and children with disabilities, the greatest dangers are from child welfare involvement, running away, being groomed online, and homelessness.” Passing a Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (TRSA) and extending the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) would shield victims from forced criminality. Experts also noted that grooming prevention education in schools (1 hour twice per year) would help raise youth awareness of these harms, and Democrats condemned the Trump Administration’s disastrous funding freeze and illuminated its “harmful consequences in disrupting efforts to combat human trafficking and online exploitation.” The Senate hearing also highlighted the dangers of CSAM and the ability of generative AI to create hundreds of thousands of explicit images. Senator Grassley stated that big tech is noticeably absent in preventing CSAM, and their algorithms have fostered a rise in sexual exploitation of minor children and others. Effective tools are being developed to identify CSAM and need bipartisan support to continue those efforts.
Access the House Judiciary hearing Protecting Victims of Human Trafficking and Online Exploitation here.
Access the Senate Judiciary hearing Children’s Safety in the Digital Era: Strengthening Protections and Addressing Legal Gaps here.
ED Launches ‘End DEI’ Portal
On February 27th, the U. S. Department of Education (ED) launched a portal for parents, students, teachers, and the broader community to report instances of discrimination, based on race or gender in publicly funded K-12 schools. The Department will use these community reports to identify potential cases for further investigation. Read the announcement here.
Appropriations Committee Holds Hearing on Federal Investment in K-12 Education
On Wednesday, 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. Virginia “Ginny” Gentles, Director, Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies; Dr. Lindsey Burke, Director of the Center for 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, President and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. School choice, student performance, protection of special education funding, and allocation of federal dollars for education emerged as the major topics. The majority party and three of four witnesses advocated sending federal dollars back to the states and shifting oversight responsibility for federally required programs out of the U.S. Department of Education to other agencies. Dr. Burke specifically recommended that funding under 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 oversight to ensure all students have free and fair access to public education would be lost if funds were dispersed across agencies.
Watch the hearing and read the testimonies here.
Full-Year CR “Likely”
With a March 14 deadline looming large -amidst significant partisan disagreements on top line spending for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY2025) appropriations- Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) announced this week that a full year continuing resolution (CR) “was likely.” President Trump also signaled his support for a funding patch, freeing up Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senator Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to negotiate. While a deal that would run through September 30 seems doable, hardline conservatives are pushing to codify some of the “most egregious” examples of alleged waste found by Elon Musk’s team in recent personnel firings and contract cancellations made across federal agencies. The White House has already floated a list of examples; however, the idea is a hard ‘no’ for Democrats and when pressed about incorporating controversial cuts as part of the deal, Chair Collins said, “I don’t see how that could work.” Both Thune and Johnson have indicated that finalizing an FY2025 deal is the absolute priority next week as President Trump prepares to make his first address as the 47th President to Congress on March 4 at 9:00 PM ET.
COPAA Submits Amicus Brief to the Ninth Circuit in Support of the Right of Students to the Public Funding of ALJ-Ordered Placements
In early February, COPAA submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of the family of a child with a disability, urging the court to reverse the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in J.H. v. Seattle Public Schools. You can read the amicus brief here.
In J.H., the family prevailed following a due process hearing, where the administrative law judge (ALJ) found that the school district had failed to provide the student with a free appropriate public education (FAPE) and ordered the district to pay the costs of a private placement. As COPAA argued in its brief, the ALJ’s findings were careful and thorough and were entitled to deference by the federal district court, which overturned the ALJ’s decision.
The district court further erred by ordering the parents to reimburse the school district for the costs of the private placement. The IDEA requires school districts to bear the costs of private placements that are ordered by ALJs during the pendency of litigation.
COPAA noted that there is no case precedent requiring parents to reimburse a school district for the costs it incurs in complying with an ALJ order that is later overturned. Requiring parents to do so runs counter to both the IDEA’s stay-put requirement and to the substantive FAPE guarantee.
COPAA Legal Director Selene Almazan and board member Ellen Saideman authored the amicus brief. Charlotte Cassady represents the family in the appeal along with COPAA member, Kerri Feeney.
Lawsuit threatens Section 504
In September 2024, 17 states’ Attorneys General filed a lawsuit in Northern Texas. The lawsuit challenges the legality of Section 504 and its new rules, which protect people with disabilities from discrimination in health care and human services. Texas v. Bacerra was filed to challenge the new 504 (from May 2024) regulations enacted to protect people with disabilities from discrimination in health care and human services. However, the lawsuit, in its relief and remedies section, has asked the court to declare Section 504, in its entirety, to be unconstitutional.
DREDF and others have issued alerts on actions to take https://dredf.org/protect-504/
Write to state Attorneys General on why Section 504 is important
- Ask if your state is one of the 17 states to drop out of the lawsuit
- Say why you support Section 504
There is a sample letter on the DREDF website.
On February 19, 2025, Texas submitted a Joint Status Report to the court to clarify its demands and assert that its demand has never been to declare Section 504 unconstitutional. However, they have not moved to amend their complaint, and they remain committed (per their filing last week) to changing Section 504’s application in such instances as people with disabilities being able to live in the community.
The states involved in the lawsuit are: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.
Your Voice Is Making an Impact: Tell Congress to Protect Students with Disabilities
In just one week, COPAA has sent over 1500 emails to the U.S. Congress urging support for Medicaid -to ensure eligible students with disabilities have access to school-based services- to ensure investments in the IDEA that support children and families, and to reject proposals to close the U.S. Department of Education. To keep up the momentum, COPAA encourages anyone who has not emailed Congress about these critical issues to visit COPAA’s Take Action page and send an email this week.
Senate Committee Advances Linda McMahon as Education Secretary Nominee
Last week in a 12-11 vote, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted to advance the nomination of Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education. Prior to the vote, COPAA CEO Denise Marshall issued a statement expressing “deep concern with the nominee”, and explained that based on answers provided to the HELP Committee during her nomination hearing, “Ms. McMahon lacks essential knowledge of crucial laws…and, we are not confident she will uphold all tenets and requirements of key federal education, disability and civil rights statutes that Congress has meaningfully aligned to support the 9.5 million children with disabilities to promote their educational access and opportunity.” A date has not been announced for McMahon’s full vote on the Senate floor. COPAA is also monitoring the Senate HELP Committee schedule as they will also consider additional nominees including Kim Richey as Assistant Secretary, Office for Civil Rights.
ED Instructs Schools to End Racial Preference, Legal Experts Push Back
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) advising educational institutions receiving federal funds to cease using race as a factor in admissions, hiring, promotions, compensation, scholarships, discipline, and related areas. The DCL targets programs that promote or support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and while ED includes a footnote that the DCL “does not have the force and effect of law and does not bind the public or create new legal standards,” it also warns educational institutions that “…noncompliance could result in investigations and loss of federal funding, with enforcement beginning within 14 days.” In direct response, lawyers who study and teach antidiscrimination law, education law, employment law, constitutional law, and civil rights have issued a joint public letter expressing “concern” that federally funded institutions will “eliminate, or already have eliminated, important DEI initiatives that remain legally defensible and often further institutions’ legal obligations under federal laws. They summarize their response by noting. “ … under prevailing federal civil rights laws and Supreme Court precedent, DEI initiatives that do not employ racial classifications or otherwise limit opportunity to individuals from certain racial groups remain legally secure…[and] urge(s) school leaders not to sacrifice essential and legally defensible DEI initiatives.”
This Week: House Hearing to Focus on Federal Investments in Elementary Education
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-H) will conduct a hearing on Wednesday, February 26 to discuss the status of federal investments in elementary education. Chaired by Rep. Robert Aderholdt (R-AL) with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) expert witnesses for the Republicans include Ms. Virginia Gentles, Director, Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies; Dr. Lindsey Burke, Director of the Center for Education Policy, The Heritage Foundation; and, Ms. Starlee Coleman, President and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Mr. Robert Kim, Executive Director, Education Law Center is the witness for the Democrats. Given the disagreement between parties on how to focus federal K-12 investments as well as recent cuts by the Trump Administration to K-16 research, teacher training programs, longitudinal studies, grants that included the terms diversity, equity, inclusion, transition and more, a lively discussion is expected.
Education Dept. lifts pause on some civil rights probes, but not cases of race, gender discrimination
ProPublica
The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday told employees that it would lift its monthlong freeze on investigating discrimination complaints at schools and colleges across the country — but only to allow disability investigations to proceed. That means that thousands of outstanding complaints filed with the department’s Office for Civil Rights related to race and gender discrimination — most of which are submitted by students and families — will continue to sit idle. That includes cases alleging unfair discipline or race-based harassment, for example. “I am lifting the pause on the processing of complaints alleging discrimination on the basis of disability. Effective immediately, please process complaints that allege only disability-based discrimination,” Craig Trainor, the office’s acting director, wrote in an internal memo obtained by ProPublica.