On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released Education At Risk: Frontline Impacts of Trump’s War on Students, which included results from a COPAA survey detailing how the Administration’s actions that target the U.S. Department of Education (ED) harm access to civil rights protections for students with disabilities. “COPAA was honored to work with Senator Warren to conduct a survey of our nationwide membership to determine the impacts of the Administration’s actions on children with disabilities and their families,” noted COPAA CEO Denise Marshall. “The feedback was overwhelmingly clear as 95 percent said that the impacts are already being felt, and that actions have already instilled and created fear and confusion,  especially a s  it relates to a parent’s ability to file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and whether to expect OCR to process and/or investigate the complaint.” The report cites that the Administration has eliminated hundreds of millions in federal funding for education programs, fired nearly half the department’s staff, and attempted to illegally shift core responsibilities to other agencies. The report also warns that the dismantling of the OCR leaves over 46 million students without proper protection and that cuts to the Institute of Education Sciences threaten families’ access to critical school data. The report also notes that the proposal to transfer all requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to the Department of Health and Human Services risks placing 8 million students with disabilities in a health-focused agency that is not equipped to support state and district implementation of a law designed to promote educational access and opportunity for students with disabilities. “Parents and advocates especially do not want the proposed cuts or block-granting of general and special education funding, or to move IDEA to another agency,” Marshall concluded. “We will continue to communicate with federal policymakers about the services, resources, programs, training, and supports that states and districts need to ensure they can meet the needs of students with disabilities in our nation’s schools.”