COPAA’s members and team have been urging appropriators since early spring to protect students with disabilities and support special education funding in annual appropriations bills. With last week’s activity in the Senate Appropriations Committee, COPAA is pleased to report that your advocacy, in partnership with the disability and education communities, has led to several incredibly positive outcomes, including funding and protections for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Specifically, Senate appropriators voted 26-3 to finalize the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Services (Labor-H) bill, preparing it for a floor vote next month. Critical wins in the bipartisan bill include a proposed total of $79 billion for education overall, with no programs eliminated, thus keeping the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) discretionary budget intact. Senate appropriators ignored recommendations made by the White House to eliminate or block grant certain parts of IDEA and other education programs, and have kept current funding levels for both IDEA at just over $15 billion as well as Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) at $18 billion. Consistent with COPAA’s recommendations and in a preventative move to keep Title I and IDEA at ED, the bill prohibits any transfer of these funds and their programs to other agencies and requires ED to maintain sufficient staffing “to fulfill its statutory responsibilities.” 

Other wins include language specifying for IDEA as well as the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) -which funds longitudinal data collection, special/general education research, and more- that ED must fund and oversee each of the funding lines as outlined in the bill “report.” COPAA advocated for this specificity in the underlying appropriations statute to ensure that all of IDEA (e.g., Part B-611 (ages 6-21), Part B-619 (preschool), Part C (ages 0-2), and Part D-National Activities) and other education laws are funded and implemented by ED as required by federal authorizing statutes. Finally, in an unequivocal move to protect state access to appropriated funds, the bill requires funding for IDEA, ESEA, homeless education, career/technical education, and adult education to be distributed to states “on the date such funds become available for obligation” which according to Senate Appropriations Labor-H Subcommittee Chair Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), “…it’s so [state] grantees have no surprises about when they’re getting the money Congress promised them.” For the health and disability support programs overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Senate bill funds all early childcare and disability support programs (e.g., university centers for excellence in developmental disabilities, protection and advocacy, developmental disability councils), which in some cases were targeted by the White House for elimination. Vice Chair Patty Murray noted, “Our bills reject devastating cuts and reject many of this Administration’s absurd proposals like dismantling the Department of Education or destroying HHS and more.” 

Next steps on FY 2026 spending bills: While the specific legislative strategy to finalize all twelve spending bills by October 1 by either the House or the Senate remains unclear, the Senate did pass a ‘minibus’ last Friday that contained three of the twelve funding bills: Military Construction, Veterans, and Agriculture. To pass the Labor-H bill in the full Senate, one option being discussed is to bundle it with the Defense bill to ease [both] their passage on the Senate floor, where a 60-vote margin is required. COPAA will keep you informed as things develop.

ACT NOW : COPAA encourages its members to email your Senators TODAY and urge passage of the bipartisan FY 2026 Labor-H bill which supports special education, protects all of IDEA, and ensures states and districts receive the funding they need to educate children with disabilities and support their families.