In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 7.5 million children 3 to 21 years old received services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in AY 2022-23.
About 980,000 of them were autistic, up from 498,000 in 2012-13. Trump is trying to close the Department of Education.
Kalyn Belshaand and Erica Meltzer at Chalkbeat:
President Donald Trump made a brief announcement Friday morning of a policy that could upend how the nation serves its 7.5 million students with disabilities.
Offering virtually no details, Trump said he’d decided that the Department of Health and Human Services would handle students’ “special needs” instead of the Education Department.
“Rather complex,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “I think that will work out very well.”
But many legal experts and advocates for children with disabilities say the president does not have the authority to move funding or oversight of special education to another agency. That would require an act of Congress, they say.
Many educators, parents, and disability rights advocates worry that the president will try to move forward anyway, and that this plan could end up stripping children with disabilities of legally required educational support and services — and sideline them in an agency that doesn’t have the expertise, staff, or training to properly serve them
...
Multiple laws say the Education Department is responsible for overseeing and funding the education of children with disabilities.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act established the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services within the Education Department and said that it must include an Office of Special Education Programs, “which shall be the principal agency in the Department for administering and carrying out” IDEA, along with “other programs and activities concerning the education of children with disabilities.”
The law that created the Department of Education said the department must include an Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
IDEA also says the education secretary is responsible for administering IDEA grants. The most recent budget laws give control of IDEA funds to the Department of Education and say those funds can’t just be transferred to another agency.
Many states, tight on cash, are in need of the federal money that the Department of Education allocates to students with disabilities, said Daniel Pearson, executive director of a teacher-led nonprofit organization Educators for Excellence.
If funding remains the same, Pearson said he'll be watching to see if it comes with the same stipulations to spend on students with disabilities.
"There could be a world where funding is not decreased, but it could go to states as block funding so states can allocate how the money is spent," he said. "The problem is that the accountability measures are built in through the federal department."
I WARNED ABOUT THAT DANGER LAST YEAR.
