Latest news with #IndividualsWithDisabilitiesEducationAct
Washington Post
28-04-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Justices seem sympathetic to student in disability discrimination case
The Supreme Court appeared sympathetic Monday to the arguments of the parents of a Minnesota teen with severe epilepsy who want schools to do more to accommodate the needs of disabled students. The case focuses on whether families must meet an unfairly high burden to show schools are falling short. It is being closely watched by disability advocates and schools, with officials saying a ruling for the girl — identified as Ava in court filings — could make it easier for millions of students to require educators to do more to tailor teaching to their unique situations. Roman Martinez, an attorney for Ava's family, told the justices during oral argument that some federal courts require students with disabilities to show that school officials acted in 'bad faith or gross misjudgment' to prove a discrimination claim under landmark disability laws — a bar not required in other disability-discrimination cases. Other courts use an easier to prove requirement known as 'deliberate indifference.' 'It's wrong to impose any sort of uniquely stringent standard on children facing discrimination in schools,' Martinez said in court. Ava has a rare form of epilepsy. She requires help walking and going to the bathroom, and has difficulty communicating. Her seizures are most severe in the morning, so she typically cannot attend school before noon. After moving to Minnesota in 2015, Ava's parents asked the Osseo Area School District in the Minneapolis suburbs to match the evening instruction and other accommodations she had received from her previous school district in Kentucky. Ava's parents said Osseo schools refused, offering shifting rationales, including that providing the requested services would set an unfavorable precedent for other school districts and that they did not want to teach Ava in her home. During her first three years at Osseo schools, Ava got about 65 percent of the instructional time typically given to students without disabilities. The school district said it worked hard to accommodate Ava, including meeting with her parents before they enrolled her and starting her school day at noon. The system offered to engage in mediation to resolve differences over Ava's education plan, but officials said her parents refused. The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act guarantees schoolchildren with disabilities a 'free appropriate public education.' People who claim schools have failed to meet the act's guidelines can sue under the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. Ava's parents did so, asking for a permanent injunction to require Osseo to provide her a full day of instruction. They also sought compensatory damages for Ava's alleged mistreatment. The district court rejected the discrimination claims, and the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed, finding Ava's family had not proven the 'bad faith or gross misjudgment' standard. Lisa Blatt, an attorney for Osseo schools, told the justices that the 'district cares deeply about Ava and gave her more service than any other student.' She also said a ruling for Ava would expose schools to more legal action and possibly severe sanctions under the ADA. 'Reversing … would expose 46,000 public schools to liability,' Blatt said. 'Every good-faith disagreement would risk liability or even the nuclear option — the loss of federal funding.' Blatt argued that the justices should impose the more stringent 'bad faith or gross misjudgment' standard in all disability discrimination cases, not just those related to schools. Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared skeptical, saying that would be a 'sea change.' 'That strikes me as a pretty big deal,' Barrett said. 'We don't have other circuits that have adopted the question.' The federal government is backing Ava's parents, arguing that the 'bad faith or gross misjudgment' standard has no basis in the ADA or Rehabilitation Act. Monday's argument grew unusually testy at one point, with Blatt accusing the attorney for Ava's family of lying. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch demanded that Blatt withdraw the accusation, which she eventually did. 'You should be more careful with your words, Ms. Blatt,' Gorsuch told her. A decision in the case, A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, is expected by summer.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ahead of setting school budgets, Michigan education leaders brace for federal cuts
As the U.S. Department of Education's future is uncertain, school leaders across Michigan are pondering an intimidating reality as they plan next school year's budget: What if a portion — or all — of the state's annual federal funding goes away? Michigan receives roughly $2 billion in federal education funding annually. Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District, held a budget update on Wednesday. Vitti, in the virtual meeting with over 1,000 attendees, said his district, the largest in the state, disproportionately relies on federal funding, compared with other districts in the state. "You can imagine the hurt and pain that we will experience by losing federal funds," he said. Adding later that the direction the federal government has taken under President Donald Trump is "defunding the future of the most disadvantaged children in this country." "This is no longer a drill," he said. "We have to stop thinking, 'Oh it's rhetoric; it's just an executive order.'... This is real, folks. ... We cannot wait, we cannot hope. We cannot pray alone to think that we're going to get through this without changing direction and advocating for something different and something better." The U.S. Department of Education's workforce has already been about cut in half, with cuts to some grant and research programs. Federal education funding makes up about 9% of the state's education budget, according to the Michigan League for Public Policy. No concrete cuts to federal funding have been put forward and even if Congress eliminated the federal education department, funding wouldn't automatically be cut. But speculation over what could be cut has proliferated. A federal budget resolution approved Friday does not lay out many specific streams of education funding, Education Week reported, prompting even more speculation about what could be slashed by Congress. School budgets have to be completed by June 30. And a lot could happen between now and then. But already, administrators have started to use the word "cut" — hopefully, judiciously, Vitti said, if federal cuts happen. "What I don't want to do is go to a world where many of you lived once where everyone gets a pink slip saying we don't know if your job is there next year," he said. Novi Community School District Superintendent Ben Mainka said he is preparing for both the best- and worst-case scenarios as budget uncertainty looms. "We're kind of operating under the auspices of, let's be prepared, but let's also not do something rash and reduce programming or something like that ahead of hearing any information about actual cuts," Mainka said. In Wayne County alone, schools receive $421 per student in federal Title I funding, which is meant to help schools that educate a disproportionate amount of students from low-income homes. The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which allocates money for services for students with disabilities, is federal law. Michigan schools received about $460 million in federal funding for special education in 2024, about 15% of the funding for special education services, according to the Michigan League for Public Policy. State funding remains the largest source of education funding. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's proposed budget includes a 4.1% increase to the foundation allowance for Michigan students, raising it to $10,000 per pupil, up from $9,608. But whether Whitmer's proposed budget will be passed as-is is up to lawmakers, who will likely agree on their own proposals before passing a budget, expected sometime in the summer. While 10% of state education funding is federal, about 32% of federal funding constitutes Detroit Public Schools budget, Vitti said, which is because the district has a weak local tax base and a larger population of vulnerable students than many districts in the state. Vitti said he is particularly concerned that Congress, in service of cutting $2 trillion from the budget, could eliminate portions of Title I funding, funding for teacher training, funding for English Learners, funding for programs that help low-income students improve learning experiences, Medicaid funding that helps students with disabilities, and funding for school lunch programs. In Detroit, $124 million in Title I funding for the 2024-25 school year went to paying academic interventionists, funding for assistant principals, funding for literacy programs, and more purposes. If Congress cut 25% of Title I funding, the superintendent said, Detroit would see $30 million gone. Vitti, stressing that no idea has been finalized, discussed several strategies district officials have thought up to address any potential budget cuts, including: accelerating the closure of schools that district had already planned to close, reducing discretionary funds for purposes such as professional development and STEM programs, freezing hiring for vacant roles, delaying technology upgrades and eliminating commercial property insurance coverage. "Myself and the board is already thinking about ways to keep people employed, mainly protect school staffing, protect student programming so reform can continue despite these cuts for the next year or two," he said. In Warren on Wednesday, educators, parents and students held school "walk-ins" to protest recent cuts to the federal education department. Robert Callender, a chemistry teacher and president of the Warren Education Association, wrote in a news release that federal education funding is critical to educating vulnerable students in particular. 'Dismantling the Department of Education would be devastating for local students with special needs and students from lower-income families, as our schools rely on federal resources to support special education programs, tutoring, school meals and more,' Callender wrote in a news release. 'This would cause permanent harm to Warren students, who need and deserve more support — not less.' Education leaders also stressed that federal funding for students with disabilities has never been fully funded: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act promised to fund 40% of special education funding, but has largely hovered around the 15% mark, according to the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association. Many districts, even with state special education funding, have to dip into general education funding to cover special education expenses. "We're seeing a significant amount of challenges that relates to costs" of special education services, Mainka said. "Because, obviously, to support our children in the way that they need to be supported — and we're adamant that they get that support — it costs a lot of money." Wendy Zdeb, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, wrote in an email response to questions from the Detroit Free Press that part of the frustration among education leaders is the pace at which the federal government is making cuts. "Compounding this is the lack of communication from the federal government," she wrote. "It seems as though cuts are happening so quickly in other departments of the government and schools need time to react to these things. It is pretty unnerving to just be watching the headlines learning about what is happening at the same time as the public." Contact Lily Altavena: laltavena@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan education leaders brace for federal cuts amid speculation
CBS News
13-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Coloradans assess how Department of Education job cuts will impact the state
Coloradans are looking at how cuts to the U.S. Department of Education may affect the state going forward. The department eliminated 1,300 jobs this week. Another 600 employees took voluntary resignations, totaling roughly half of its workforce. Department staffers at the federal building on Speer Boulevard in Denver were told not to come to work Wednesday, but the Denver office was not subjected to the cuts. Still, the elimination of jobs in neighboring regions at the Office for Civil Rights has some concerned it will be more difficult to protect students from discrimination and bullying. Disability Law Colorado Co-Legal Director Emily Harvey said, "Without an administrative agency to take those concerns to, parents are left with alternatives like going to a state agency that enforces similar laws or going to court. And that is time consuming and costly." While President Trump said his administration will shift control of education to the states, he has also signed several executive orders establishing federal regulations for K-12 schools. In January, Trump signed an executive order prioritizing federal funding for school choice programs. An executive order signed in January banned the "radical gender ideology and critical race theory" in K-12 schools by teaching about race and racism. Another executive order in February would bar federal funding for schools with COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Trump said that, although he would like to eliminate the Department of Education, doing so requires an act of Congress. Dr. Kevin Welner of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder said, "There's a question about whether the department can fulfill its statutory and constitutional duties overall if it degrades its capacity so much that it can't carry out, in any sort of meaningful way, the jobs that have been assigned to it by Congress." The department said it will continue to oversee formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students and competitive grantmaking. Pam Bisceglia, executive director of Advocacy Denver, said that Colorado receives about 30% of its funding to implement the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) from the federal government. She added, "We do not want the offer of a free and appropriate public education compromised."
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's layoffs at US Department of Education: What it means for Michigan's public schools
Cuts to the U.S. Department of Education will likely significantly weaken its operations or, education leaders fear, possibly imperil how billions of dollars in federal education funding is managed. President Donald Trump's cuts of thousands of federal jobs from the department came Tuesday. Any barrier between students and that funding, said advocates with organizations that work with vulnerable students, could lead to worse outcomes for those students. The layoffs also come amid speculation over whether Trump will issue a new executive order seeking to further gut or eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. You may see the word "unclear" a lot as you read through stories about Trump's intent to eliminate the federal department, which can only be eliminated through Congress. That's because a lot is, simply, unclear about how layoffs or an executive order's impact could trickle down to states and communities. Education top boss Linda McMahon and Trump have said the effort is designed to send education authority back to states, but authority over what is still hazy: In Michigan, communities set curriculum, make budget decisions and make other consequential choices over how students are educated. The U.S. department, instead, oversees discrimination investigations in educational institutions, federal funding for vulnerable students and students with disabilities, national testing and more. It's highly unlikely, given curricula is determined at the local level. Under Michigan law, local school boards set core academic curriculum that follows state academic standards. The state academic standards are recommended and developed by Michigan's State Board of Education and the Michigan Department of Education. No. The National school free breakfast and lunch programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Michigan School Meals, the state-level program that supplements the national program to make meals free for all students instead of solely income-eligible students and communities, is run and funded through the state. That doesn't mean free school meals couldn't be in the administration's crosshairs. Some conservative groups do favor instituting more limitations on free meal programs, according to Education Week. The Department of Agriculture has also cut $1 billion in funding that helps schools and food banks purchase from local farmers, according to USA TODAY. Michigan signed an agreement with the USDA in 2022 for more than $5.8 million in that program. The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act is federal law. Funding for it, and the law itself, would not be eliminated through action eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, according to the School Superintendents Association. Michigan schools received about $460 million in federal funding for special education in 2024, about 15% of the funding for special education services, according to the Michigan League for Public Policy. Student special education services are also protected by law and would remain in place, even if the U.S. Department of Education does not. But advocates have also expressed concern around the future of the Office For Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education, which investigates allegations of civil rights violations, including violations of rights entitled to students with disabilities, in publicly funded schools. In Michigan alone, the Office for Civil Rights shows multiple pending cases under a range of complaints such as denial of benefits, restraint and seclusion, discipline, service animal violations and more. In fact, a major Office For Civil Rights investigation in Michigan over a state failure to educate students with disabilities during the pandemic has yet to be resolved. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened its investigation into Michigan's education department in June 2022. The investigation found that the Michigan Department of Education failed to ensure some students with disabilities received the education guaranteed to them by federal law and worsened issues for those vulnerable students. But a resolution for the investigation has not been reached, and it's unclear when one will. In early February, advocates reported that the department was canceling mediation sessions for ongoing cases. However, USA TODAY reported that the Trump administration lifted a pause on looking into disability-related claims on Feb. 20. USA TODAY staff writers Zachary Schermele and Joey Garrison contributed to this report. Contact Lily Altavena: laltavena@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trump's Department of Education cuts: The impact on Michigan schools
New York Times
12-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump's Education Plans and America's Most Vulnerable Students
I have noticed that prominent supporters of President Trump have recently made disturbing statements about children with learning disabilities. In an interview with my colleague Ross Douthat earlier this year, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said: Andreessen seems to be conflating two separate things. It is true that there is a small number of very wealthy parents who are spending tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket on private neuropsychological evaluations, but it's unclear how many of those diagnoses are 'fake,' and that process costs taxpayers nothing. Giving children more time on tests is also free — it does not necessarily require extra staffing, adjustments to classrooms or the implementation of expensive technology. Separately, there are children who have all different kinds of real disabilities, from mild to severe, and those children are legally entitled to various kinds of educational support and funding from public schools because of the 50-year-old Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This kind of sentiment is not just coming from the tech bro wing of the MAGAverse. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, while questioning Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said, 'We have an attention deficit problem in this country. You know, attention deficit when you and I were growing up, our parents didn't use a drug, they used a belt and whipped our butt, you know, and told us to sit down.' We can certainly have a debate about the best way to treat attention deficit issues, but suggesting in the year 2025 that beating children should be part of the repertoire is sick. Behind both Tuberville and Andreessen's statements I'm hearing a similar argument: Learning differences are exaggerated, and by providing support to students who have received what critics consider nonsense diagnoses, we're coddling America's children and bilking taxpayers. Because one of the big things that the Department of Education does is enforce and partially fund IDEA, this kind of argument offers a predicate for getting rid of the Department of Education and even slashing funding for education overall. According to The Washington Post, President Trump is 'preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and, in the short term, dismantling it from within.' Trump has previously said that he wants to close the Department of Education, and it has been a longtime Republican goal. To back up a bit: The vast majority of education funding comes from state and local governments. About 14 percent of funding for all public schools comes from the federal government, but how much each state relies on federal government money varies considerably — Alaska and North Dakota receive the most funding per pupil from the federal government and Utah and Kansas the least, according to the Education Data Initiative. Two big chunks of federal funding are to support Title I, which helps fund districts with low-income populations, and another chunk is for IDEA. As I noted right after the election, the president cannot get rid of the Department of Education with an executive order. He needs Congress to do that, and getting rid of the D.O.E. is not popular with voters. That remains true. But given the chaos of the past few weeks and Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency's disregard for existing statutes, I am increasingly concerned that though Trump may not succeed in getting rid of the Department of Education, he will hobble it severely. Democrats in Congress share this concern: On Feb. 5, a group of five senior members of Congress sent a letter to the acting secretary of education, Denise Carter, demanding transparency into whatever Musk's initiative is attempting to do, because 'These actions appear to be part of a broader plan to dismantle the federal government until it is unable to function and meet the needs of the American people.' We're already seeing evidence of the kind of havoc Trump can bring to our kids' lives even without a change in law. Thousands of young children have been affected by delays in funding for Head Start and some preschools may need to close temporarily, even though there has been no official change in federal funding to the program. Musk and his team slashed '$900 million in Education Department contracts, taking away a key source of data on the quality and performance of the nation's schools,' according to ProPublica. 'If I were to read the tea leaves,' said Lauren Morando Rhim, a co-founder and the executive director of the Center for Learner Equity, 'I think that we're going to see a huge decrease of staffing and simply reducing the function of the department.' Morando Rhim thinks that what Trump and Musk have done to U.S.A.I.D. could be a blueprint for their plans for the Department of Education. Disability advocates are also worried that if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as the secretary of Health and Human Services, he would meddle with the $2 billion Congress has appropriated for the Autism CARES Act of 2024, because of Kennedy's previous connection to a debunked link between vaccines and autism. Project 2025 suggests that 'the responsibilities for administering' IDEA be moved under H.H.S. if the Department of Education is dismantled, and if that comes to pass, Kennedy could have a good deal of sway over the treatment of disabled children in our schools. How might this play out for families? The most frequent concern I have heard so far is about families of disabled children having little recourse if their kids do not receive the services they're legally entitled to. David Perry, a journalist and historian who has a son, Nico, with Down syndrome, told me that when Nico's educational needs were not being met by the state of Minnesota during the pandemic, he was able to make a complaint to the federal Department of Education and hold the state accountable. 'There's an online process to issue a complaint' to the Department of Education, Perry explained. He is concerned that if Musk and his team cut staff willy-nilly, there will be no one to respond to those complaints. If Trump does actually succeed in getting rid of the Department of Education entirely — which I still think is unlikely — then the plan put forth by Project 2025 is to distribute the money for IDEA to states in the form of block grants with no strings attached. If there is little oversight for these block grants, it will be much more difficult to hold states accountable when they are not providing appropriate educational opportunities for disabled children. President Trump signed an executive order supporting the use of federal funds for school choice, including private and faith-based schools — which are beyond the reach of IDEA enforcement. As Morando Rhim wrote in an opinion essay in December, 'a child with autism, dyslexia or Down syndrome, for example, may be denied access, and private schools are under no obligation to provide any specialized services or supports to help them succeed.' We can't predict the future — especially when it comes to Trump and Musk. So I asked Tim Daly, the chief executive of EdNavigator and the author of a newsletter on education, about what concerned families can do right now if they're worried about what will happen if federal funding gets cut, or if the Department of Education ceases to function as it has been. He said to put the pressure on local and state officials. Ask them: 'What are you committed to doing and what is your plan? If a federal role simply diminishes, what would you do on special education? What would you do on funding for low-income schools?' We can also disavow anyone who tries to separate 'fake' disabilities from real ones, or tries to diminish the struggles of families who are battling every day to get their children an education. Most families I have spoken to over the years whose children have special needs spend much of their free time, and money they often don't have, fighting to get the proper diagnoses and support for their kids. 'It has always been a part-time job for me and my wife, basically since birth,' Perry said, of getting Nico's needs met. We should be making it easier for the families of disabled children to thrive, and this is not the way to do it.
