Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
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COPAA Launches New Resources: Role of Executive & Legislative Branches and More
COPAA has created a new set of resources to educate and inform members about the current proposal to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and move special education functions to the Department of Health and Human Services.
COPAA Hill Days: May 5-7, 2025 – All are Welcome. Sign Up Today!
Join COPAA on May 5-7, 2025, in Washington, DC, to meet in-person with federal policymakers about legislative priorities impacting students with disabilities. No experience is required, and training will be provided. COPAA will schedule your Hill visits and will assign you to a state/regional team. We invite every COPAA member to join us and put a face and voice to COPAA’s funding and legislative priorities for students with disabilities. Learn more and register here by April 11, 2025.
Why Trump’s move to shift special ed. to HHS Is rattling educators
Education Week
Half a century ago, hundreds of thousands of children with disabilities nationwide either had to attend costly private schools or forgo education altogether. Students with disabilities who were in school were isolated from their peers for most of the school day. And the prospects for a parent securing disability services for their child depended heavily on the state where they lived. But in 1975, Congress mandated that all students with disabilities nationwide receive a “free and appropriate public education” in the “least restrictive environment” under the law now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Those federal rights haven’t changed. But President Donald Trump’s administration in recent months has plunged the federal office tasked with carrying out those policies into an unprecedented period of turmoil and uncertainty, unsettling many current and former staffers, as well as district leaders and advocates for children with disabilities nationwide.
Special education and Trump: What parents and schools need to know
The Hechinger Report
President Donald Trump has pledged to shutter the Department of Education but also promised that students with disabilities will keep getting the services they need. Special education advocates, school district officials, and teachers say mass federal layoffs mean that too few people are left to carry out a complicated law intended to protect some of the nation’s most vulnerable students’ right to an education. The administration laid off nearly half the Education Department’s staff and slashed its civil rights enforcement arm, and Trump says he wants to move special education programs to the Department of Health and Human Services — an agency that announced its own round of mass layoffs in March. The nation’s teachers’ unions, along with the NAACP, two Massachusetts public school districts, and others have sued, challenging the many changes.
(NOTE: COPAA CEO Denise Marshall is quoted in this article.)
Education leaders support Mannion’s bill to protect rights of students with disabilities
CNY Central
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at dismantling the federal Department of Education, sparking a legislative response from Congressman John Mannion. Mannion introduced a bill to strengthen the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a law enacted 50 years ago to protect students with disabilities. Mannion, representing New York’s 22nd District, said, “Enshrined into law, there must be special education services. The Office of Special Education must be within that department.” He added that moving these services to another department would violate the act and questioned whether another department could provide the necessary expertise and attention. Nicole Capsello, president of the Syracuse Teachers Association and a former special education teacher, expressed concern over the potential impact of Trump’s order.
A Texas student was kneed in the face by a school cop: Her civil rights case is one of thousands that may never be resolved
The 74
After a campus police officer grabbed student Ja’Liyah Celestine by the hair and kneed her in the face, she filed a federal civil rights complaint that alleged persistent racial discrimination against Black teens at her Texas high school. But the complaint, brought by the 18-year-old in late October with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, may never get investigated. That’s because it’s one of thousands of federal civil rights complaints and investigations against school districts nationally — particularly those alleging sexual misconduct or racism — that advocates say have been left to languish by the Trump administration with little hope for resolution. As the president and Secretary Linda McMahon seek to dismantle the Education Department — with its civil rights office among the hardest hit by layoffs — attorneys say students like Celestine have lost one of their few avenues for relief.
(NOTE: COPAA’s recent lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education is referenced in this article.)
The US right is coming for disabled people. Here’s why that threatens everyone
The Guardian
Twelve days before Donald Trump took office, Charlie Kirk, media personality and rightwing activist, complained on his eponymous show about the presence of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters at emergency press briefings for the Los Angeles fires. Another rightwing activist, Christopher Rufo, took his cue on X, calling interpreters “wild human gesticulators” who turned briefings into a “farce”. The rightwing theorist and Origins of Woke author Richard Hanania, quote-tweeting Rufo, declared ASL interpretation an “absurdity”. Around this time, Elon Musk was skulking around the platform, campaigning to bring back the R-word. Use of the slur tripled on X after his post. To those with less knowledge of disability history, these attacks might read as gross but ultimately toothless. Activists, though, quickly sounded the alarm: the incoming administration would be coming for disabled people. “To the deaf community, the fight for accessibility is nothing new,” said Sara Miller, a deaf educator and community advocate.
Republicans Keen to Move IDEA to HHS Via Appropriations Bill
On the heels of the President announcing plans to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and move all student loans to the Small Business Administration (SBA) and “special needs education” to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Republican appropriators indicated last week that they would consider any plan the President might send to the Hill. “I’m broadly supportive of what his aims are there, so I’d be happy to sit down and work with him any way I could,” House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) said. Following suit, both Senate Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee Chair Shelley Moore-Capito (R-WV) and House Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee Chairman Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL) said they would be open to moving ED’s functions if that is what the White House seeks. While the discussion makes it sound possible, and it technically is, the reality is that to move funding from one federal account to another (i.e., ED loan accounts to SBA, ED special education functions to HHS), Congress would also need to approve amendments to the statutory laws under which the funds are authorized. In these cases, it would include amending the Higher Education Act and both Part B and Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); and any eventual vote would also require the Senate to reach the 60-vote threshold. COPAA opposes any effort to eliminate ED and to move vital education programs and funding, including IDEA to HHS. Tell Congress to reject such proposals.
ACT NOW! Support Medicaid & Protect Children with Disabilities
This week, the House and Senate are continuing to negotiate budget bills to support tax cuts. To pay for the tax credits, some Congressional Republicans have targeted Medicaid for massive cuts. If Congress cuts Medicaid, states and school districts will not have the federal funds needed to pay for the vital services that many infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities need. Nearly all States use Medicaid to finance Part C early intervention services for children who qualify for both programs and on average, about half of children served in Part C are enrolled in Medicaid. The cuts to Medicaid also threaten access to services for millions of qualifying school-age children with disabilities who rely on Medicaid for therapies/services, technology, and other support in school.
Tell Congress to support Medicaid and protect children with disabilities.
As GOP Eyes Medicaid Cuts, Trump Tries to Avoid the Political Third Rails
Washington Post
Former President Trump is seeking to avoid the political pitfalls surrounding proposed Medicaid cuts while aligning with Republican fiscal goals. His cautious approach reflects the complex political landscape in which cutting Medicaid could alienate key voter groups.
Republicans Once Maligned Medicaid. Now Some See It as a Program Too Big to Touch
AP News
Once a target for cuts by many Republicans, Medicaid has become a program that some now view as too integral to the nation’s healthcare system to alter. The growing scale and importance of Medicaid have shifted the party’s approach, making it a political issue that many Republicans are now reluctant to tackle.