In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Trump wants to abolish the Department of Education. Evie Blad at Education Week:
Ending the agency would require approval from Congress and a great deal of political capital that Trump may want to target elsewhere, especially in the early days of his administration in which he will be under pressure to deliver promises around tax cuts and immigration. But it is possible.
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The department also administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA‚—a $14.2 billion program that helps schools pay for special education services for students with disabilities—and a portfolio of grants related to school safety, teacher training, and workforce preparation.
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The Education Department ensures compliance with federal laws that protect civil rights and disability rights in public schools. That includes investigating complaints that schools aren’t doing things like meeting the needs of students with disabilities, responding adequately to sexual harassment or bullying, or ensuring fair treatment for students of color.
...IDEA is not a civil rights act. Its requirements are conditions of aid, aka "strings." If you cut the strings, you gut the protections that students and their families have relied on for decades.
Project 2025, the conservative policy document spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and written by a number of former Trump aides and allies, proposes scrapping the department and making major changes to the two major K-12 funding streams it oversees: converting funding for the Individuals wit.h Disabilities Education Act into “no strings attached” block grants to states and ending Title I.
