Education Department cuts threaten students with disabilities

In the early 1970s, nearly 2 million students with disabilities could not attend public schools. By 2021, more than 7.5 million students with disabilities were enrolled in public schools and had access to special education services to help them learn alongside their nondisabled peers, thanks to the 1975 passage in Congress of what's known now as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

From special schools to self-contained classrooms in public schools to inclusion, most students with disabilities today are educated in general education classrooms. This has been a remarkable accomplishment made possible by parents, teachers, administrators, school boards and even students with disabilities advocating for themselves.

The recent executive order signed by President Donald Trump to begin dismantling the U.S. Department of Education will have a profound impact on students with disabilities. Critical funding and legal rights for students with disabilities, and the assurance of an appropriate education including equal access to public schools, were under the direct auspices and monitoring responsibilities of the Education Department. In New York State, this includes 459,771 students with disabilities — approximately 19% of the total student population. On Long Island, the percentages are slightly lower — 15% of the student population (29,152 students) in Nassau are classified as students with disabilities, and 18% (38,407 students) in Suffolk. That means 67,559 students with disabilities on Long Island are at risk of losing the benefits of 50 years of progress.

The Department of Education’s responsibilities are to be transferred to Health and Human Services but there has been little, if any, guidance on how HHS will assume its new responsibilities — especially as it copes with its own announced mass layoffs and early retirements. Given those personnel challenges, monitoring and disbursing funds spent by the Department of Education on special education programs — $15.5 billion in 2024 — and guaranteeing that dollars are going directly to students with disabilities remains a legitimate concern. Will states still be required to spend their targeted funding solely on special education or will funding be disbursed as block grants giving states more latitude on how to spend their money? If that latter comes to fruition, students with disabilities likely will be shortchanged.

Before the 1975 legislation, students with disabilities had their civil rights violated by not being given an appropriate education. For 50 years, that tenet gave students with disabilities equal protection under the law. The civil rights branch of the Department of Education was responsible for addressing civil rights complaints filed on behalf of students with disabilities There will now be only five regional offices to handle these complaints, down from the original 12. The New York office is one of those to be shuttered. Even if HHS picks up the slack, timely resolutions to complaints would be unrealistic. The civil rights of students with disabilities would now be in jeopardy and subject to discrimination and other violations.

Fifty years of accomplishments should be a time for celebration. But as we approach the half-century mark of this historic legislation, the rights of students with disabilities have never been in greater jeopardy. Yet there is hope. Lessons from the past have taught us that when stakeholders — parents, administrators, teachers, and boards of education — collaborate, great things can happen. It did 50 years ago. Now we must work to do it again.

This guest essay reflects the views of Philip S. Cicero, retired superintendent of Lynbrook Public Schools.