How the Education Department Helps Students with Disabilities Get Education

“Frankly, I probably wouldn’t have been to college if it weren’t for the publicly accessible resources provided by the Ministry of Education for students with disabilities like me,” Gwizdovsky said.

“And, if it weren’t for these resources, I wouldn’t have waited for the law school to start this fall.”

However, the role of the U.S. education department in helping students with disabilities may soon change.

President Trump says his administration is Want to move “Special Needs” from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency recently announced Its own substantial cut. His administration has not specified exactly what programs will be moved and whether the ideas are in it, but the conservative policy script Project 2025 I did come up with ideas to HHS.

Ministry of Education spokesman Madi Biedermann said: “The ministry is actively reviewing it [Education Department] Responsible ways to serve students and families. This will be achieved in partnership with Congress, other institutions, and national and state education leaders. ”

Experts told NPR that any such move would be very complicated. Katy Neas, former deputy assistant secretary of the department’s office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, said the special education law is “intertwined” with the education sector.

“It seems misleading me to be separated from the wider educational institution,” said North, who now leads Arc, an advocacy group for people with disabilities. Nice said moving some legally protected plans to another agency will also require Congressional action.

However, some conservatives want to know if the federal government is helpful in special education.

“I mean, parents do theirs [education plans] And their local educators, right? With their schools and school districts. They were not with Washington. “Jonathan Butcher, an education researcher at Heritage Foundation, said he helped shape the 2025 project.

So many issues have attracted attention around the future of federal participation in special education, which is how the Ministry of Education has traditionally contributed to the education of students with disabilities.

Helping schools comply with federal laws for students with disabilities

The Ministry of Education is responsible for managing many federal laws that govern how students with and without disabilities experience the school.

But the idea is one of the main ways the federal government can contribute to the education of students with disabilities. The law covers the right of each child to “free and appropriate public education” and says that students with disabilities have the rights of the Individual Education Program (IEP) to list the services each child is entitled to. Ideas are also tools for the federal government to send money to schools to help pay for these services.

“The Department of Education not only provides funding and resources to various school departments, but the idea, I mean, this is your accountability framework,” said Mark Burnette, principal of Carol County Public Schools in rural Southwest Virginia. He said nearly one in five students are eligible for ideas service.

Nationwide, Idea serves approximately 7.5 million students, accounting for 15% of the number of K-12 students. In fiscal year 2024, Congress set aside $15.4 billion in ideas. The education department is responsible for allocating the money to states and then passing it on to qualified school districts.

Idea funds are used to pay special education teachers and staff to meet students’ personal needs, teaching materials, transportation, etc.

“Children with hearing impairment may need hand language interpreters or subtitles to really follow what’s going on in the classroom,” Nice said. “It’s these things that allow children with disabilities to truly learn the same material as their non-disabled peers.”

The Ministry of Education is responsible for monitoring whether states and school districts follow ideas, as well as other laws for students with disabilities. This includes Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which provides that students have the right to reasonable accommodation, such as scheduled rest time for children with diabetes, can eat snacks or check their insulin levels.

The department also provides national leaders with ideas guides and collects data to help determine eligibility for conceptual funds.

Implementing the Special Education Act and the Civil Rights of Students with Disabilities

The Office of Civil Rights or OCR is the law enforcement department of the Ministry of Education. When students face discrimination at school, they can file a complaint with the OCR, which could lead to a federal investigation.

The office is responsible for complaints of discrimination based on race, gender, nationality and other categories, but OCR data It shows that disability discrimination has historically accounted for the largest share of complaints.

Sueli Gwiazdowski hopes she can take advantage of OCR while she is in school.

“The formal complaint process will make me a child,” she said.

It could hold her accountable for law enforcement, “In the circle of attorneys and investigators, they were paid in the Civil Rights Office.”

In recent years, the number of OCR complaints has reached a record high, and Many people dragged through the system For several months. But recently, OCR’s ability to handle all these cases has been further strained: OCR also cuts the education sector’s workforce in half, as U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon cuts the education sector’s workforce in half. Lost more than 40% of employeesand 7 of its 12 regional offices.

The Trump administration promises to retain “resources for children with special disabilities.” However, Volkswagen’s layoffs also affected the office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services that Nice used to work for. Teams that conduct research on special education, teams that help determine the eligibility of the Concept Fund and provide legal guidance to state and local leaders have also been affected.

“If you don’t have any type of accountability standards or people to report, then this gives people room to leverage the program without providing the services they need to provide,” said Principal Burnett.

Michael Gilberg, a special education attorney in New York and Connecticut, also suffering from autism, said one of his disabled clients recently filed a complaint with the OCR.

“Because the field does not have the functions of the Ministry of Education, [their case] Stagnated,” he said.

Without OCR, Gilberg noted that “theoretically, a family would be the only recourse to sue a school district in a federal court or state court…it would take a lot of time and a lot of money.”

The future role of the federal government in special education

Several NPR experts expressed concern about transferring special education programs to HHS and staying away from the education department, an institution dedicated to helping all students learn.

Alison Barkoff, who led HHS until last year’s disability program, said splitting the special education program into different institutions “with the idea and goal of special education is targeted, and it is really part of the students as part of their classrooms.

Jonathan Butcher of the Heritage Foundation believes the proposed move is an opportunity to improve the federal government’s role in student life.

“I think moving it to another institution is an appropriate move because I don’t think we have any evidence that the U.S. Department of Education is effectively serving these families,” he said.

“Change is difficult, which is why it doesn’t happen often at the federal level, but it’s an opportunity to simplify the federal process.”

Disability advocate Sueli Gwiazdowski says History has been shown The danger of separating the rights of students with disabilities from those with non-poor students.

“What does it look like when educating students with disabilities has not been seen as part of normative general education? It looks like institutionalization.”

She fears that if special education moves to HHS, people with disabilities may be classified as health issues rather than a comprehensive part of public life, including schools.