November 29 marks the 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It’s cause for celebration, but also action, education advocates say.
When nearly every special education expert at the Department of Education was fired in October, the aim of the Trump Administration was clear: to dismantle the Department of Education, as outlined in Project 2025, move some functions to other agencies, and erode the hard-won rights of public school students.
With the passage of IDEA 50 years ago, America made a promise to students with disabilities and their families that they could participate fully in learning and reach their potential, says NEA President Becky Pringle.
Celebrating and protecting that promise “goes to the very heart of who we are as a nation. Every student, no matter where they live or whether they have a disability. deserves the opportunity to learn and grow in their neighborhood public school,” Pringle says. “A school that has the resources to meet their uniquely individual needs; a school where inclusion and equity aren’t just words but are the values that shape everything we do.”
As we mark the 50th anniversary, parents and advocates are encouraging everyone to join them in the fight to preserve IDEA in the Department of Education.
Since the anniversary also coincides with the holiday season, it’s an ideal time to spread the word about why protecting students’ rights is so important.
In the season of giving, NEA Today compiled some thoughtful, respectful responses to comments and questions of even the most skeptical in your holiday gatherings.
Let’s not talk about politics -- it’s the holidays!
This isn’t about politics. This is about people. If you care about children and their access to education, this is something to pay attention to. IDEA is not just an education law. It is a civil rights law. Gutting it sends a message that some children matter less. That should worry every single American in this country.
But I don’t have kids with disabilities.
This isn't just about students with disabilities. It's about the foundation of public education as we know it. If we allow one part of the system to be dismantled in silence, the rest won't be far behind. When the infrastructure that protects the 7.5 million kids with disabilities is targeted, it doesn’t just weaken special education, it weakens public education as a whole. When rights shrink for just a few, protections shrink for everybody.
But wasn’t there just a reduction in staff to save money?
The greatest threat to public education is not loud. It happens quietly and looks like layoffs. It's a strategic shrinking of responsibility and accountability. Students with disabilities are the canary in the coal mine. When their rights are under attack, it's a warning sign for the entire system.
Unless we speak up very loudly, in unison and together, this will continue.
Why do students with disabilities need a federal law like IDEA?
Before IDEA was passed in 1975, only one in five children with disabilities was educated. More than 1.75 million children with disabilities were excluded from public schools. Children with disabilities were often institutionalized, where they received little to no education. Parents who kept their children with disabilities at home had no support and few options for education. States were legally allowed to deny access to students with disabilities because they couldn’t accommodate them. IDEA required schools to provide equal access to education for all students with disabilities and provided federal assistance to make necessary accommodations.
I heard that federal special education services will be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). What’s wrong with that?
Health and education systems speak in entirely different languages – they have different areas of expertise and training. It would be like moving the leadership of a public school from a superintendent’s office to the office of a hospital CEO.
Students with disabilities are not medical problems awaiting cures. Our children are humans who deserve to navigate a world prepared to educate and accommodate them so that they're empowered to live lives of dignity and limitless opportunity. The IDEA is intended to equip students, not cure them.
HHS is a great place for medical experts. The children we're talking about need education experts.
Framing students with disabilities through this medical model risks increased stigmatization, segregation, and isolation away from their peers. It would undermine the decades of progress that we've made.
Isn’t the administration proposing that funding be given to the states? Shouldn’t there be more local control?
What they're doing is gutting the supports that state officials rely on to implement these laws and that families rely on to ensure the law is implemented. Our states simply aren't equipped to take full responsibility without the support, the oversight, and the funding distribution from the Department of Education.
Another major problem is that we will end up with 50 different approaches to serving students with disabilities with wide variation across states. The purpose of IDEA was to ensure that no matter where a student with a disability lives, they are guaranteed a free and appropriate education.
I’m just one person. How can I make a difference?
IDEA was established because of parents of kids with disabilities raising their voices together about the need to have their children educated. And the law was reauthorized multiple times because of voices joining together every time. Not just parents of kids with disabilities, but educators, and other people from across the community who believed in the promise of IDEA.
You're just one person, with one voice, but it is one of millions that we need to be in unison saying the same thing. Celebrate and protect the promise of IDEA!
Learn More:
- Why Protecting IDEA and the U.S. Department of Education is Essential for Students with Disabilities
- Frequently Asked Questions: What’s Happening at the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and What It Means for Students with Disabilities
- Executive Action and the U.S. Department of Education—Its Role in IDEA and How Dismantling ED Harms Students with Disabilities
- Federal Authority Over Education Laws and Funding—A Summary of the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch
- Plain Language resource about the threats to IDEA
