ITEP predicts the federal private school voucher program in OBBB could cost the fed govt $51 billion annually! That amount would get us somewhere between 30-35% of full funding for IDEA (in other words SO much closer to the full funding pledge of 40%).
itep.org/trump-megabi...
The Senate just passed the worst Medicaid cuts in history — but we can stop them in the House! We make it easy to take action with scripts and tips. autisticadvocacy.org/2025/07/act-...
Check out this FANTASTIC paper led by @lindseykaler.bsky.social for her (2024 TED dissertation award winning!) dissertation. Lindsey tackles a long-standing Q:
What is the effect of teacher attrition on students w/disabilities?
Working paper: tinyurl.com/j3rykkp9
& One-pager: tinyurl.com/bddtzxtp
In Trump's first White House, Betsy DeVos launched an initiative to prevent inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion on #ActuallyAutistic students. Now, Trump's top special education official ran charter schools that restrained 41 percent of students.
www.the74million.org/article/trum...
We won!! A nationwide preliminary injunction against McMahon's February Dear Colleague letter which tried to stop public schools & higher Ed from teaching honest history or enforcing student civil rights. It’s a win for students, families & educators. democracyforward.org/updates/harm...
The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights investigates discrimination in schools. It recently lost more than 40% of its staff.
Are you looking for resources on literacy legislation, including dyslexia and science of reading laws? I made my resource list an open access document for all. Please feel free to share!
BREAKING: A federal lawsuit filed overnight says the Trump administration is sabotaging civil rights enforcement at the U.S. Department of Education.
Brought by parents & advocates, the lawsuit says actions and mass firings at OCR violate the Constitution.
w/ @jodiscohen.bsky.social
The lack of understanding of IDEA is devastating
Anyone who is using IES-facilitated data to criticize the Education Department today really needs to acknowledge that the entire research arm that has helped form the basis of their opinions about the federal role in schools has just been decimated, raising serious questions about progress tracking.
Hearing that nearly all the employees in the statistics agency inside the Education Department -- NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) -- have lost their jobs. Rumors that the NAEP test -- the nation's report card -- will no longer be run by NCES. This info is not confirmed.
"A former Education Department staffer ... said the entire Office for Civil Rights team based in Philadelphia that employed 30 staffers was let go." www.chalkbeat.org/2025/03/11/e...
On Fox to discuss massive layoffs, McMahon says IDEA money flows through Title I (a different program) then says she doesn’t know what IDEA stands for.
Stassun said this is not the only grant that has been halted. The Frist Center hoped to receive a $3 million grant through the NSF’s INCLUDES program — which meant to make the nation’s STEM fields more reflective of the nation’s population — for its outreach to neurodivergent middle schoolers and high school students to get them ready for STEM majors in college.
ICYMI: One of the grants halted by the Trump administration's war on DEI? A $3 million grant through the National Science foundation to help neurodivergent middle school and high school students get ready to enter STEM majors.
+1 for this and it is particularly important for parents of special education students to effectively advocate for changes to an IEP. www.the74million.org/article/what...
The IDEA Full Funding coalition had a webinar this week for #IDEA50 #IDEAFullFunding www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...
State tests (and a fed requirement for doing so) are so important for families of kids with disabilities.
Pretty funny watching GOP testimony leaning on old Rick Hanushek school spending claims without also noting that even Rick has walked that back.
Glad @edlawcenter.bsky.social ‘s Bob Kim is there to immediately correct the record.
www.chalkbeat.org/2023/5/16/23...
www.youtube.com/live/g9jC5ZA...
McMahon goes on record saying private schools funded by taxpayer vouchers—including a federal voucher scheme—do and should have the right to turn children away if those children don’t fit those private schools’ needs.
It’s not parent choice. It’s the school’s choice.
New from me: In 1970, only 1 in 5 students with disabilities went to public school. Now, about 15% of students in public schools receive special education services. Eliminating the Department of educatio would have disastrous consequences.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
They're dismantling the Institute for Education Sciences to create the illusion of meritocracy. Because no data means no evidence of systemic inequities.
IDEA turns 50 in 2025! It's a milestone worth celebrating and an important law worth supporting. 1/
Updated report on what private school vouchers and ESAs mean for students with disabilities - helpful and timely information from the National Center for Learning Disabilities @nicoleafuller.bsky.social
New pub today, focused on the ethnoracial diversity of the special ed teacher (SET) workforce.
We found that -- at current rate of change -- the SET workforce will NEVER be ethnoracially representative of the population of students w/disabilities.
journals.sagepub.com/eprint/VPMXC...
The examples of disability discrimination in this were so helpful
