ABC7 NEWS

Anacostia mother Andrea Jones said she had to fight D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) to get help for her son, who has autism spectrum disorder. “It was a lot of him just not being able to obtain the academics that he was entitled to,” she told 7News. Jones said she had to get an outside psychologist and a lawyer involved when her son’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) was taken away. Now her nine-year-old is thriving at a charter school. Because of what she went through, Jones isn’t surprised the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating whether DCPS is failing to meet the needs of students with special needs or disabilities. “It’s the ‘why now’ of it, especially when there have been talks of the Department of Education being defunded,” she said, alluding to reports that the Trump administration may be issuing an executive order to dismantle the department. “What does that mean, if they’re looking into this now? Is it really going to help our students, or is this really for political show?”