HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, COLLIN BINKLEY and ANNIE MA at AP:As Trump began to reshape the Education Department, investigations and mediations around disability rights issues came to a standstill.
Standing up for children with disabilities has been a primary role of the department’s civil rights office, which enforces protections guaranteed under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Historically, most complaints to the department have involved disability discrimination — parents saying their disabled child is not receiving accommodations they need to learn, which schools must provide under federal law.
It’s not unusual for new presidential administrations to freeze cases while they adjust priorities, but exceptions typically are made for urgent situations, such as a child’s immediate learning situation. The freeze on pending cases and Trump’s calls to dismantle the department altogether left many parents worrying about the federal government’s commitment to disabled students’ rights.
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In the fall, DarNisha Hardaway was relieved when an Education Department mediator found her son’s school needed to reevaluate him and provide tutoring. She had filed a complaint with the department after a series of suspensions that she said stemmed from her son being overwhelmed and not getting enough academic help. The 12-year-old has an intellectual disability, autism and epilepsy.
The Education Department, Hardaway said, “made the school system do what they’re supposed to do.”
If the school district broke the mediation agreement, she was told to contact the Office for Civil Rights again. This month, after her son had an outburst in class, his suburban Detroit school told her he would need to learn online for the rest of the year — a ruling Hardaway saw as a violation of his disability accommodations. On Tuesday, an Office for Civil Rights representative told her they could not respond with any substantive information.
Every day she waits, her son learns in front of a computer. “He can’t learn online, and DarNisha is not a teacher,” said Marcie Lipsitt, who is working with the family. “The OCR is just closed for business, and I’m outraged.”
OCR enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which Trumpist state attorneys general are suing to overturn.
See my earlier post.
