Earlier this month, the Trump Administration announced more layoffs to the U.S. Department of Education, this time targeting the offices overseeing special education. This action wipes out the people in charge of ensuring that all children with disabilities have protected rights. This branch of the Department of Education, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), is responsible for providing support to students with disabilities and ensuring that states are following the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
With 121 employees in these offices fired, only a handful are left. The job cuts have been temporarily put on pause, but if they continue it will be almost impossible for the offices to ensure the implementation of the federal law known as IDEA. This law ensures that all special needs children have the right to free and appropriate education, before this law was passed majority of special education children were denied public education and had few rights.
As part of this law, states submit student data to staff at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to show they are meeting the requirements laid out in the law. Without the OSERS staff, there will be no guarantee that children with disabilities will receive the proper education they need.
The Trump Administration has spoken often about returning education to the states and his intentions to dismantle the Department of Education, leaving all special education in the hands of the states government. This has been a scary thought to special education children and their families, because different states could handle special education differently.
The administration is still looking at options to move special education from the Department of Education elsewhere. Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications, has emphasized that the movement will be made “without any interruption or impact on students with disabilities” and has also made clear that no official agreement has been passed.
President Trump has named the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the potential new office over-seeing special education funding. However, the mass layoffs have still raised red flags to advocates for special education, who are worried that the lack of federal oversight will result in “more procedural mistakes, added compliance burdens on teachers, delays in evaluations for special education services for students, and gaps in data that informs improved practices” according to David Bateman, a principal researcher at the American Institutes for Research.
During a seminar hosted by Parallel Learning, Bateman emphasized that although major changes are occurring at the federal special education level, schools still need to follow IDEA rules. “The regulations that we have for IDEA and Section 504 remain in law,” he said. “Tell your teachers this.”
Shelby Keegan, Special Education Instructional Coach for Bowling Green Independent Schools, says that the layoffs at the national level have not affected operations at BGISD. She also added that she is “not concerned because I know BGISD will always do whatever is necessary to meet the needs of students.”
