Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
Expected Trump Order to Shutter Education Dept. Could Amount to ‘Pocket Change’
Despite the fiery rhetoric, President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate a Department of Education he accuses of abusing “taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth” comes down, appropriately, to civics and math. First, the president cannot legally abolish a department with statutory responsibilities embedded in the law. Only Congress can do that. Most of the public money that flows to the department goes to programs codified in federal legislation. They include Title I ($18 billion annually), special education ($15 billion), and the Office for Civil Rights ($140 million). To eliminate any of those programs — let alone to shutter the department outright — or even to move them to another agency requires a supermajority in Congress. That leaves a motley assemblage of much smaller programs that are not bound up in Congress’s authority. Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, described those offerings as relative “pocket change” compared to the department’s overall budget.
Exclusive: 12 Education Chiefs Ask McMahon for More Control over Federal Funds
The 74
Some state education chiefs aren’t wasting any time letting the new administration know what they want. A dozen state leaders, all from Republican-led states, wrote to Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s education secretary nominee, last week asking her to push for greater state control over federal education funds and to avoid issuing guidance they say is “not anchored in law.” In the Jan. 28 letter, shared exclusively with The 74, they also want McMahon, former head of World Wrestling Entertainment, to send large buckets of funding for schools, like Title I money for low-income students, as a block grant. But they stopped short of stating support for abolishing the U.S. Department of Education — President Donald Trump’s top education policy goal. The letter doesn’t mention the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which under one bill in Congress, would move to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Opinion: Nation’s Report Card shows we fail students with disabilities
The Mercury News
When the Nation’s Report Card was released last month, it reiterated a hard truth about our education system today: We are failing our students with disabilities. Students with disabilities, who make up 15% of all public school students, continue to lag significantly behind their non-disabled peers. On the reading assessment administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), fourth graders with disabilities scored 39 points lower, and eighth graders scored 38 points lower. In math, fourth graders with disabilities scored 31 points lower, and eighth graders scored 40 points lower. And in both math and reading, eighth-grade students with disabilities saw a decrease in their NAEP scores since previous results from 2022.
Trump wants to shake up education. What that could mean for a charter school started by a GOP senator’s wife
The hechinger Report
Screening revealed that Brooke had dyslexia — a common learning disability stemming from neurological differences that make it difficult to identify sounds and associate them with letters and words. When her private school told the Simmons family they would have to shell out up to $10,000 a year for once-a-week personalized reading instruction and other services, they decided to transfer their daughter to Louisiana Key Academy, a public charter school. The school, which serves more than 700 students on three campuses in the state, was co-founded in 2013 by Laura Cassidy, a retired breast cancer surgeon whose husband is Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy — the new chair of the Senate committee whose role includes overseeing education. The Cassidys have a daughter with dyslexia and have long advocated for similar students and their families. Laura Cassidy said in a December phone interview that she doesn’t believe Congress will make sweeping cuts to federal special education funding. “I don’t think that’s going to go away,” said Cassidy, but if it does, she hopes the state will make up the difference.
Hundreds of thousands of students with disabilities should be getting trained for work through pre-employment transition services — but aren’t
The Hechinger Report
There’s a half-billion-dollar federal program that is supposed to help students with disabilities get into the workforce when they leave high school, but most parents — and even some school officials — don’t know it exists. As a result, hundreds of thousands of students who could be getting help go without it. New Jersey had the nation’s lowest proportion — roughly 2 percent — of eligible students receiving these services in 2023. Only about 295,000 students in the whole country received some form of the services — out of an estimated 3.1 million who were eligible — in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available. In New Jersey last year, that number was just 1,370 students out of more than 80,000 eligible. In New York, about 5 percent of eligible students got services.
Department of Education Announces Another Round of New Appointees
On Thursday, February 6, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new slate of appointees tasked with advancing President Trump’s education priorities. Notable appointments include James Bergeron as Deputy Under Secretary, who brings extensive experience in higher education policy and legislation, and Julie Hartman, a prominent media host and writer, as Senior Advisor for Communications and Outreach. Other key additions include Amber Mariano Davis, a former Florida state representative with expertise in workforce development and education policy; Savannah Newhouse, a communications strategist with a background in political campaigns; and Isaac Hampton and Nicholas Stone, both stepping into roles focused on legislative affairs and educational initiatives. These appointees are expected to shape policies that prioritize educational access, workforce readiness, and local decision-making in education.
Read the press release here.
Lawmakers Demand Answers on Threats to Education Department Operations and Data Security
On Wednesday, February 5, Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), along with Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Rosa DeLaura (D-CT) wrote to acting Secretary of Education Denise Carter, expressing their concerns for actions taken by the Trump Administration that affect the U.S. Department of Education (Department). Specifically, the letter highlights concern over actions taken by the Administration to freeze federal financial assistance, disenfranchise federal workers from their jobs, and gain unapproved access to sensitive student data. Said the lawmakers: “We will not stand by and allow the impact that dismantling the Department of Education would have on the nation’s students, parents, borrowers, educators, and communities.” They further highlight the important functions facilitated by the Department, including FAFSA distribution, that could be disrupted if the Department were dismantled. The lawmakers conclude by requesting detailed information on data access and protection, personnel changes, employee communications, and the continuity of departmental programs since January 20, 2025.
Read the full letter here.
House Education and Workforce Hearing: The State of American Education
On Wednesday, February 5, Chairman Tim Wahlberg (R-MI) led the House Education and Workforce Committee’s first full committee hearing titled The State of American Education. Pitched as an “examination” of K-12 education in the U.S., testimonies were presented by four witnesses: Mrs. Nicole Neily (President, Parents Defending Education), Dr. Preston Cooper (Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute), Mrs. Janai Nelson (President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund), and Mr. Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. (President and CEO, Society for Human Resource Management). The hearing highlighted concerns about declining student performance and the need to refocus on core academic subjects and surfaced the ongoing debate over the effectiveness of federal oversight in education via the Department of Education. Private school choice was a contentious issue – praised by Republican committee members for expanding student opportunities but criticized by Democrats for weakening public school budgets and fostering segregation. Lawmakers across the aisle agreed on the importance of expanding access to career and technical education, improving support for students with disabilities, and the importance of finding functional solutions that will improve the state of education in America.
CO: U.S. Department of Justice investigates reported “seclusion and restraint” used against disabled Colorado students
CBS Colorado
A sweeping federal investigation into the Douglas County School District has unearthed hundreds of allegations of systemic discrimination and mistreatment, with families and advocates calling for urgent reform to protect students from racial harassment and harmful practices like “seclusion” and “restraint.” CBS News Colorado is learning more about the complaints that prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Douglas County School District. Investigators from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department were in Colorado last week, looking into complaints against DCSD “regarding potential discrimination, harassment, or bullying on the basis of race, national origin, religion, or disability, and the district’s use of seclusion and restraint against students with disabilities,” the Justice Department said in an email to parents.
National Reading and Math Outcomes Released
According to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released this week by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Grade 4 math scores improved between 2022 and 2024, a two-point gain that follows a 5-point decline from 2019 to 2022 and eighth-grade scores in math showed no significant change. In reading, scores dropped in both fourth and eighth grades since 2022, continuing declines first reported in 2019. “Overall, achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance,” NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said. “Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math, driven by higher-performing students. Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.”
Read the NCES press release here.
Executive Order Calls for Use of Formula Funds to Expand School Choice
In an Executive Order (EO) issued last week, President Trump directed the U.S. Department of Education to take measures that support parental rights and school choice. Identified as “education-freedom,” the EO names five steps that ED must take within 90 days to comply. These include issuing guidance on how states can use federal formula funds to support school choice; placing education freedom as a priority for discretionary grants; directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to expand choice in block grants to States for family and children services; establishing mechanisms for Department of Defense families to attend schools of their choice; and allowing Bureau of Indian Education families to use federal funds for educational options of their choice. COPAA opposes the use of federal education funding for school choice programs.
Office for Civil Rights Reverts to 2020 Title IX Rule
Last week, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) announcing that effective immediately, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will revert to the provisions of the 2020 Title IX Rule and. Trainor cited the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky decision that vacates the 2024 Title IX Rule which provided for “gender identity,” a category that runs counter to President Trump’s Defending Women executive order that acknowledges only two genders —birth assignment as male or female. Because the reversion to the 2020 Title IX Rule subverts requirements under the Administrative Procedures Act, a federal law requiring agencies to follow a “notice-and-comment” rulemaking process when developing or revising regulations, and states like California have said “all means all” -and they will follow state law, not the Trump Administration’s DCL- the process to implement Title IX consistently across the nation is unclear.
Memo from Trump Administration Temporarily Freezes Federal Funding
A Monday evening memo issued to federal agencies by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructed the freezing of “all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance… to the extent permissible under current law.” The freeze was intended to give agencies time to ensure compliance with the Executive Orders (EO) issued by President Trump -including the EO issued on January 20 regarding an elimination of funding targeting programs or offices that support diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). While it is consistent that a new Administration evaluates existing funding agreements to ensure the alignment of priorities, it is unprecedented to halt federal funding in that process. This move resulted in some federal agencies closing funding portals, caused confusion about whether existing federal contracts would be honored, and created a general sense of panic among stakeholders that receive federal funds. By midday Tuesday, a federal judge had issued a ‘stay’ on enforcement of the memo, and by the end of the day, OMB had rescinded the memo itself. However, the underlying directive to evaluate all current funding and ensure its alignment with Executive Orders is still active as agencies evaluate and report to OMB the details of current federal funding obligations.
White House Releases Order Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling
The White House has issued Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling, an Executive Order (EO) aimed to combat radical ideologies in schools, emphasizing the importance of patriotic education and parental oversight. The EO condemns practices that it defines as fostering division, identity-based victimization, and challenges to family unity. Within 90 days, the federal agencies involved must develop strategies to eliminate funding for discriminatory ideologies, protect parental rights, and prevent unauthorized social transitions.
From Secretary Cardona
As education leaders, we have a collective responsibility to ensure that all children are educated in learning environments that are safe, supportive, and responsive to their needs. We must keep this responsibility in mind when considering the practices of restraint and seclusion in schools. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) remains concerned that children continue to be subjected to restraint and seclusion practices even though these practices are harmful to children and despite the lack of evidence that these practices are effective strategies to respond to a child’s behavior or that these practices reduce the occurrence of behaviors that interfere with learning. The use of restraint and seclusion practices is inconsistent with our shared goal to ensure every child is treated with dignity and free from abuse. The most recent publicly available data shows that more than 50,000 public school students were restrained or secluded in public schools during the 2020-2021 school year.i
Restraint and seclusion practices can have a lasting and negative impact on children. There is ample evidence of significant harms to students due to these practices, including serious physical injury, emotional trauma, and even death.ii Schools and early childhood programs should do everything possible to align their practices to ensure all children are educated in learning environments that are safe, supportive, and responsive to their unique needs.
Instead of relying on reactive restraint and seclusion practices, it is critical for educators to be given opportunities to learn about and implement positive, proactive practices in schools and early childhood programs and how to effectively support and respond to students’ behavioral needs. As described in previous guidance from the Department, this involves using practices that provide a behavioral framework to support the social, emotional, physical, and mental health needs of students,iii including through the use of multi-tier systems of supports with individualized, targeted, and effective interventions for high-need students. Schools and early childhood programs should implement evidence-based practicesiv to foster climates of inclusion, safety, and belonging as an alternative to exclusionary discipline and restraint and seclusion practices.v
I commend those states and districts that have prohibited the use of seclusion and limited the use of restraint in schools and early childhood programs, and those districts and programs that have committed to implementing evidence-based, responsive, and inclusive practices to support student behavior. The rejection of seclusion and the shift away from reliance on restraint in our Nation’s schools and early childhood programs is long overdue. We must equip educators and early childhood providers with the positive, proactive, and evidence-based tools and resources to meet the needs of all students. I encourage all States that have not yet done so to invest in providing educators with evidence-based, positive behavior support alternatives that support students and prevent the need to use restraint and seclusion practices, which can be harmful.
The Department has invested $1 billion through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Stronger Connections Grant program for states to award subgrants to high-need local educational agencies to establish safer, healthier, and more inclusive learning environments. The Department also published a guide for schools on how to implement positive, proactive approaches for supporting children with disabilities as an alternative to seclusion and restraint practices and a guide to implement functional behavioral assessments for any student whose behavior interferes with learning. In addition, the Department continues to provide resources to ensure educators and early childhood providers are prepared to respond effectively to students’ behavior needs.vi School and early childhood program leaders can both keep their communities-including children and staff-safe while ensuring every child is included, supported, and treated fairly. Our children are depending on us, and the time to act is now.
Sincerely,
Miguel A. Cardona, Ed.D.
U.S. Secretary of Education