While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) remains intact, there have been numerous changes in the U.S. Department of Education (ED) that are raising alarm among disability rights advocates and families of children with special education needs.
Most significantly, the administration of IDEA and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) were moved from ED to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The move signifies a policy shift in addressing special education as a health issue rather than education issue. Disability advocates have spent decades fighting against this practice and are concerned it will diminish the advances made to create inclusive spaces for children with different needs.
There is evidence to corroborate their concern.
The Secretary of HHS promoted false evidence that vaccines cause autism and upended vaccine schedules for children. Furthermore, the Secretary discussed creating an autism database of U.S citizens with an autism diagnosis, raising concerns regarding the potential for eugenics-backed policies by the federal government.
Another major shift by the federal government is the transfer of ED’s Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Previously, this office within ED was responsible for civil rights enforcement for Section 504 and Americans with Disabilities Act Title II complaints. There is concern that this shift will lead to major backlogs in investigating complaints and less oversight of addressing violations identified.
These changes mean less coordination and expertise with less oversight. This can create harmful conditions for children and minimize options for recourse for parents and caregivers when schools do not deliver on the promises of IDEA.
What does this mean for families in Virginia?
There are roughly 185,000 students receiving special education services through IDEA in Virginia, or 15% of all students in the state.
While there are no plans to reduce federal funding of special education, IDEA has been historically underfunded and left states and districts with ongoing challenges to provide needed resources to students.
Urban areas struggle to deliver on IDEA often because of their complex bureaucratic systems and the demands of providing sufficient resources to a larger number of students, and rural districts face acute shortages in specialists. In both rural and urban districts, the federal changes could mean less pathways for families to contest violations to IDEA and less federal resources to adequately investigate complaints. This is particularly concerning given that there are fewer incentives for districts to abide by IDEA with the rollback of federal support of special education.
Placing Additional Work on Special Education Families
For families of children with special education needs, these changes signify additional advocacy work to ensure that their children receive a free and appropriate public education.
Most families with special education children already know this burden and have carried it for years. Parents become experts at navigating IEP meetings (Individualized Education Program) to advocate for the strongest plan to ensure tailored support and accommodations to meet the academic and social-emotional goals for their children. Many parents find these meetings to be full of education jargon and little transparency as to what services and support they are legally entitled to for their children. Because of this, many parents hire an advocate or attorney to attend IEP meetings to hold schools accountable to IDEA.
Now, more than ever, parents will need to educate themselves on the rights and responsibilities to provide free and appropriate public education for students with special education needs. Parents will need to be stronger advocates because the systems to protect students with special education needs have been significantly weakened. It will be parents who hold schools accountable and they should not back down until their children’s educational needs are met.
How Can the State Help Families of Special Education Children?
The federal government has shown families that it is deprioritizing the rights of students with special education needs by weakening the systems of support. Virginia’s Department of Education can help families by responding to this gap in oversight and coordination.
It is critical to listen to families’ concerns and work with families to design responsive systems to meet the educational needs of their children. In doing this, the state does not need to respond directly to the federal changes. Instead, it can keep what is working and change what is not working for Virginia families.
This might look like investing in partnerships with local universities to help build solid pipelines to districts with shortages in specialists needed for special education services such as school psychologists, speech and language pathologists, pediatric occupational therapists, and more special educators.
Virginia should also include mandatory training of frontline educators on IDEA and the importance of maintaining its requirements despite federal turmoil. Even better would be training educators and families in the rights afforded under IDEA and ways to build trusting partnerships between schools and families.
Special education works best when families and schools are partners, and this is especially important now when many families feel like they are losing ground on special education rights.
BETH DAVIS is a Postdoctoral Fellow at EdPolicyForward: The Center for Education Policy at George Mason University.
