Federal Legislation & News
in Special Education
Administration Cuts Education Research and Technical Assistant Contracts
The Administration has canceled $900 million in contracts for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), a major U.S. Education Department (ED) agency responsible for funding education research and maintaining extensive education statistics. Among the eighty-nine canceled contracts are research initiatives that include long-term studies on student learning and research on teaching strategies and support for transition [to career training and college] for youth with disabilities. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP: “the nation’s report card”) and the College Scorecard will not be affected, according to the Department. On Friday, ED also announced the additional cancellation of over $350 million in contracts and grants for several Regional Educational Laboratories (REL) and the Equity Assistance Centers (EAC). This includes terminating ten contracts worth $336 million with the RELS, which were intended to support applied research, development, and technical assistance. COPAA issued a statement regarding the cancellations.
President Nominates Six ED Sub-Cabinet Positions
On February 12th, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued a press release announcing the presidential nomination of six sub-cabinet positions: Nicholas Kent, Under Secretary of Education; Jennifer Mascott, General Counsel to the Department of Education; Kimberly Richey, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights; Kirsten Baesler, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education; Dr. Kevin O’Farrell, Assistant Secretary for Career and Technical Education; and Mary Christina Riley, Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Congressional Affairs.
Read the press release here.
Think Tank Issues FAQ About Functions of ED
The Center for American Progress (CAP) has released a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) brief about the function of the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Succinctly captioned, the brief states that ED enhances education by offering guidance and essential support to states, schools, students, and families nationwide. These federal resources contribute to the agency’s goal of ensuring equal educational access for everyone. Continuing this work upholds this federal commitment and guarantees equal opportunities, which in turn bolsters the nation’s economy, democracy, and national security. Specific questions include why ED was established, what it does, what it does not do, whether an executive order can eliminate the Department and whether other countries maintain a national-level education agency. CAP also released a related blog post about the key role ED plays in supporting millions of students with disabilities.
Access the FAQ here.
Read the blog here.
EdTrust Brief Guides Leaders to Build Parent Support for Assessment
EdTrust issued a brief titled How District Leaders and Advocates Can Build Parent Support for Statewide Assessments that emphasizes the need to engage parents to support districtwide annual testing. Their analysis revealed a significant disconnect between policymakers and parents, including that while school leaders reported using assessment data to make key decisions about resource allocation, parents were unaware of how these results informed targeted support for their children. Many parents did not realize that year-end tests were used to strategically distribute limited resources based on student needs. Although leaders claim they use this data to support students, the public continues to view testing in a negative, punitive light. Based on the results of the analysis, EdTrust and the Collaborative for Student Success have developed a roadmap to guide parental support, an initiative backed by the National Parents Union.
Find the brief here.
McMahon Nomination Hearing Thursday, Advocates Ask for Answers on Plans to Protect Students with Disabilities
As the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee prepares for Thursday’s nomination hearing of Linda McMahon to serve as Secretary of Education, COPAA and disability advocates wrote and urged the HELP Committee to conduct an “informed dialogue” that includes rigorous discussion of the nominee’s “vision and goals” in carrying out the Secretary’s responsibilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Specifically, the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities (CCD) letter stated, “the Secretary must agree to provide the leadership and oversight necessary to fully support students with disabilities and promote their rights and opportunities to achieve the same meaningful education and employment outcomes as their peers.” The CCD letter aligns with COPAA’s statement and policy alert that calls on Congress to “protect students with disabilities and reject [any] federal policy threats” to the safety, health, and educational rights and opportunities of children served by IDEA and Section 504.
Expected Trump Order to Shutter Education Dept. Could Amount to ‘Pocket Change’
Despite the fiery rhetoric, President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate a Department of Education he accuses of abusing “taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth” comes down, appropriately, to civics and math. First, the president cannot legally abolish a department with statutory responsibilities embedded in the law. Only Congress can do that. Most of the public money that flows to the department goes to programs codified in federal legislation. They include Title I ($18 billion annually), special education ($15 billion), and the Office for Civil Rights ($140 million). To eliminate any of those programs — let alone to shutter the department outright — or even to move them to another agency requires a supermajority in Congress. That leaves a motley assemblage of much smaller programs that are not bound up in Congress’s authority. Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, described those offerings as relative “pocket change” compared to the department’s overall budget.
Exclusive: 12 Education Chiefs Ask McMahon for More Control over Federal Funds
The 74
Some state education chiefs aren’t wasting any time letting the new administration know what they want. A dozen state leaders, all from Republican-led states, wrote to Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s education secretary nominee, last week asking her to push for greater state control over federal education funds and to avoid issuing guidance they say is “not anchored in law.” In the Jan. 28 letter, shared exclusively with The 74, they also want McMahon, former head of World Wrestling Entertainment, to send large buckets of funding for schools, like Title I money for low-income students, as a block grant. But they stopped short of stating support for abolishing the U.S. Department of Education — President Donald Trump’s top education policy goal. The letter doesn’t mention the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which under one bill in Congress, would move to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Opinion: Nation’s Report Card shows we fail students with disabilities
The Mercury News
When the Nation’s Report Card was released last month, it reiterated a hard truth about our education system today: We are failing our students with disabilities. Students with disabilities, who make up 15% of all public school students, continue to lag significantly behind their non-disabled peers. On the reading assessment administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), fourth graders with disabilities scored 39 points lower, and eighth graders scored 38 points lower. In math, fourth graders with disabilities scored 31 points lower, and eighth graders scored 40 points lower. And in both math and reading, eighth-grade students with disabilities saw a decrease in their NAEP scores since previous results from 2022.
Trump wants to shake up education. What that could mean for a charter school started by a GOP senator’s wife
The hechinger Report
Screening revealed that Brooke had dyslexia — a common learning disability stemming from neurological differences that make it difficult to identify sounds and associate them with letters and words. When her private school told the Simmons family they would have to shell out up to $10,000 a year for once-a-week personalized reading instruction and other services, they decided to transfer their daughter to Louisiana Key Academy, a public charter school. The school, which serves more than 700 students on three campuses in the state, was co-founded in 2013 by Laura Cassidy, a retired breast cancer surgeon whose husband is Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy — the new chair of the Senate committee whose role includes overseeing education. The Cassidys have a daughter with dyslexia and have long advocated for similar students and their families. Laura Cassidy said in a December phone interview that she doesn’t believe Congress will make sweeping cuts to federal special education funding. “I don’t think that’s going to go away,” said Cassidy, but if it does, she hopes the state will make up the difference.
Hundreds of thousands of students with disabilities should be getting trained for work through pre-employment transition services — but aren’t
The Hechinger Report
There’s a half-billion-dollar federal program that is supposed to help students with disabilities get into the workforce when they leave high school, but most parents — and even some school officials — don’t know it exists. As a result, hundreds of thousands of students who could be getting help go without it. New Jersey had the nation’s lowest proportion — roughly 2 percent — of eligible students receiving these services in 2023. Only about 295,000 students in the whole country received some form of the services — out of an estimated 3.1 million who were eligible — in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available. In New Jersey last year, that number was just 1,370 students out of more than 80,000 eligible. In New York, about 5 percent of eligible students got services.
Department of Education Announces Another Round of New Appointees
On Thursday, February 6, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new slate of appointees tasked with advancing President Trump’s education priorities. Notable appointments include James Bergeron as Deputy Under Secretary, who brings extensive experience in higher education policy and legislation, and Julie Hartman, a prominent media host and writer, as Senior Advisor for Communications and Outreach. Other key additions include Amber Mariano Davis, a former Florida state representative with expertise in workforce development and education policy; Savannah Newhouse, a communications strategist with a background in political campaigns; and Isaac Hampton and Nicholas Stone, both stepping into roles focused on legislative affairs and educational initiatives. These appointees are expected to shape policies that prioritize educational access, workforce readiness, and local decision-making in education.
Read the press release here.
Lawmakers Demand Answers on Threats to Education Department Operations and Data Security
On Wednesday, February 5, Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), along with Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Rosa DeLaura (D-CT) wrote to acting Secretary of Education Denise Carter, expressing their concerns for actions taken by the Trump Administration that affect the U.S. Department of Education (Department). Specifically, the letter highlights concern over actions taken by the Administration to freeze federal financial assistance, disenfranchise federal workers from their jobs, and gain unapproved access to sensitive student data. Said the lawmakers: “We will not stand by and allow the impact that dismantling the Department of Education would have on the nation’s students, parents, borrowers, educators, and communities.” They further highlight the important functions facilitated by the Department, including FAFSA distribution, that could be disrupted if the Department were dismantled. The lawmakers conclude by requesting detailed information on data access and protection, personnel changes, employee communications, and the continuity of departmental programs since January 20, 2025.
Read the full letter here.
House Education and Workforce Hearing: The State of American Education
On Wednesday, February 5, Chairman Tim Wahlberg (R-MI) led the House Education and Workforce Committee’s first full committee hearing titled The State of American Education. Pitched as an “examination” of K-12 education in the U.S., testimonies were presented by four witnesses: Mrs. Nicole Neily (President, Parents Defending Education), Dr. Preston Cooper (Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute), Mrs. Janai Nelson (President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund), and Mr. Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. (President and CEO, Society for Human Resource Management). The hearing highlighted concerns about declining student performance and the need to refocus on core academic subjects and surfaced the ongoing debate over the effectiveness of federal oversight in education via the Department of Education. Private school choice was a contentious issue – praised by Republican committee members for expanding student opportunities but criticized by Democrats for weakening public school budgets and fostering segregation. Lawmakers across the aisle agreed on the importance of expanding access to career and technical education, improving support for students with disabilities, and the importance of finding functional solutions that will improve the state of education in America.
CO: U.S. Department of Justice investigates reported “seclusion and restraint” used against disabled Colorado students
CBS Colorado
A sweeping federal investigation into the Douglas County School District has unearthed hundreds of allegations of systemic discrimination and mistreatment, with families and advocates calling for urgent reform to protect students from racial harassment and harmful practices like “seclusion” and “restraint.” CBS News Colorado is learning more about the complaints that prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Douglas County School District. Investigators from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department were in Colorado last week, looking into complaints against DCSD “regarding potential discrimination, harassment, or bullying on the basis of race, national origin, religion, or disability, and the district’s use of seclusion and restraint against students with disabilities,” the Justice Department said in an email to parents.
National Reading and Math Outcomes Released
According to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released this week by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Grade 4 math scores improved between 2022 and 2024, a two-point gain that follows a 5-point decline from 2019 to 2022 and eighth-grade scores in math showed no significant change. In reading, scores dropped in both fourth and eighth grades since 2022, continuing declines first reported in 2019. “Overall, achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance,” NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said. “Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math, driven by higher-performing students. Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.”
Read the NCES press release here.