K-12 Dive

More than 850 local, state, and national organizations Thursday morning released a joint commitment to support federal special education law and to protest any move that separates services for students with disabilities from the U.S. Department of Education. Coalition members, who also include individual advocates, support keeping the Education Department as an independent agency that is fully staffed and funded to oversee federal laws, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504. The statement comes just days after the Education Department announced it was transferring the management of six core programs to other federal agencies. Special education programming was not part of that announcement, but the Trump administration said it was still exploring that option.

The coalition is led by the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, a nonprofit that works to protect the civil rights of children with disabilities, and the Council of Administrators of Special Education, a professional membership organization. The signers — who include educators, disability rights advocates, parents, attorneys, local disability organizations, and others — are uniting against what they call threats to fragment federal services for students with disabilities. COPAA CEO Denise Marshall said in the same statement, “With the current policy, funding, dismantling of the Department of Education, and other threats to the IDEA, our organizations have forged an essential partnership.”