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Tell Congress to protect IDEA by keeping it within the Department of Education!
This year, we are marking the 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and celebrating our nation’s progress in providing education programs that help students with disabilities reach their full potential.
But a Trump administration plan to move these programs out of the Department of Education and into the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will undo our achievements.
IDEA is an education and civil rights law that assures children and youth with disabilities a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. The law establishes specific offices within the Department of Education to carry out this work. However, in sending that responsibility to the HHS, the Trump administration would be sidestepping the legal requirements associated with the law.
The move would take the focus off teaching and learning and shift it to providing medical or social services to students. We could be headed back to the time before IDEA, when most public schools excluded students with disabilities and many children lived in state institutions that provided only basic care—not education.
Furthermore, staff layoffs at the Department of Education have already decimated the offices responsible for managing services for students with disabilities. Parents are left to be their own watchdogs, with no experts to call on for guidance. The Trump plan would exacerbate this and lead to even greater disadvantages for families without the means to take on that challenge.
Special education is the responsibility of experts in education, not health care.
Tell your senator and representatives to protect IDEA by keeping it within the Department of Education.