When polio survivor Judy Heumann was 5, her parents could not enroll her in their local elementary school in New York City because the school claimed her wheelchair made Heumann a fire hazard. At 9, the city let her enroll in a program for disabled students that segregated her from nondisabled children in a school basement and provided half the instructional hours.
These early experiences of discrimination in education informed Heumann’s life’s work. As a leader of the disability rights movement, she helped push the federal government to pass the law now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975. IDEA opened doors for millions of disabled students who had been institutionalized or denied an education on the basis of disability. Fifty years later, this law—in tandem with Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act—continues to ensure students with disabilities in every community are provided with a “free appropriate public education.”
Now, disabled students’ right to public education is at risk. The Trump administration says it plans to close the US Department of Education (ED), revisiting efforts that began in the president’s first term.
Though the executive branch cannot dismantle the Department of Education or alter IDEA funding without congressional approval, it could significantly disrupt two of the department’s key functions:
- enforcing critical civil rights laws—including IDEA, Section 504, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act—that protect disabled students from discrimination and ensure they receive the educational supports they need to succeed
- distributing congressionally mandated IDEA funding to the states to help them provide services to public school students with disabilities
Dismantling the department and disrupting these two key functions could have devastating effects for public school students with disabilities across the US.
Access to special education would vary more drastically between states if the Department of Education were unable to enforce IDEA and other civil rights laws
Before IDEA was enacted, states often refused to accommodate students with disabilities. Families and students with disabilities had to advocate for themselves or find an alternative to traditional public schooling—something only the wealthiest families could afford.
Currently, under IDEA, public schools must provide children with qualifying disabilities the supports they need to make meaningful academic progress in the least restrictive learning environment (PDF). These specific supports are mapped by teachers, administrators, and parents in each child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).
Legally binding documents, IEPs establish what special education services and accommodations a school must provide to help a student succeed. This can include how the school teaches a student and what they learn. A student may need textbooks printed in Braille or a specialized learning setting, such as a smaller classroom or additional certified special education teachers. They may attend their classes with an aide who can read test questions to them out loud. Others may need homework at a lower reading level than their peers.
Over the past decade, the number of students with IEPs has increased by about 1 million students. Today, more than 7.5 million students across the US have an IEP, representing more than 15 percent of all public school students ages 3–21.
The percentage of students with an IEP varies from 11.7 percent of public school students in Hawai’i to 21.1 percent in Pennsylvania. This variation reflects the fact that though all states have to comply with IDEA, states can implement the law differently and use their funding in different ways. A child who is eligible for services in Colorado may not be eligible for the same services in New Mexico.
As access to special education continues to vary at the state and local levels, ED serves a critical role in ensuring all disabled students receive the education they’re entitled to under IDEA—no matter what state they live in. To do so, it proactively monitors state compliance with IDEA and can withhold federal funding if a state is not in compliance. The department can also help families dispute a school’s assessment of their child’s needs or submit a complaint if a school doesn’t provide the supports in their child’s IEP.
In addition, ED’s Office of Civil Rights helps enforce Section 504 within the education system. This means ensuring disabled children receive the accommodations they need to access a school’s facilities, educational opportunities, and extracurricular activities. If a school fails to provide all disabled children—regardless of whether they have an IEP—with equal access to these opportunities, the department can cut a state’s federal funding.
Take, for example, a student who uses a wheelchair who would like to join their school band, but practice is held on the second floor. Under Section 504, the school must provide the student access (PDF) to band practice, so the schools moves practice to the first floor. Similarly, Section 504 requires schools to provide a child with asthma or diabetes access to medication during the school day.
Dismantling the Department of Education could therefore weaken its ability to protect disabled students’ right to free appropriate public education, limit families’ methods of recourse, and result in states offering drastically different levels of services and protections to disabled students.
States are already struggling to fund special education services, and proposed changes at the department could exacerbate the problem
State and local governments provide the majority of funding for K–12 public schools in the US—roughly 90 percent. However, federal funding has a particularly important role in helping state and local government provide special education under IDEA and Section 504 (PDF). Last year, ED distributed more than $15 billion in IDEA funding. One estimate suggests federal revenue makes up to 12 percent of school district spending on special education.
Yet the federal government has never fully funded IDEA. The law allows the federal government to cover up to 40 percent of the average, per student cost of special education. The highest funding levels ever reached is about 18 percent of the per student cost of special education.
This means for decades, state and local governments—faced with competing priorities in providing services and facilities for students—have struggled to meet the growing demand for special education.
Research contracted by ED’s independent research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), could help us better understand the cost of special education services and how Congress could update IDEA funding formulas to distribute funds more equitably among states. But after the administration began canceling IES contracts on February 10, the future of this work remains uncertain. Nearly $1 billion in cuts to crucial programs that collect and maintain data on schools nationwide have already occurred.
The Trump administration’s proposed changes to how IDEA funding is distributed, combined with the loss of experienced public servants to administer IDEA, could further restrict states’ ability to fund special education services.
Ultimately, states and local communities are primarily responsible for educating K–12 students in the US. Nevertheless, the US Department of Education is critical to ensuring disabled children in every community have access to a free, appropriate public education. Dismantling the department and disruptions to the services it provides could put those rights at risk.
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