USA: Jasour – News Desk
Students with disabilities are among the K-12 populations most likely to feel the impacts if some of President-elect Trump’s most radical and sweeping proposals gain traction.
The bulk of K-12 funding and policymaking happens at the state and local level—but special education is an exception, thanks to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which turns 50 next year.
Under IDEA, students with disabilities have a federal right to a free appropriate public education. If schools deprive them of that right, parents can file complaints with their state or the federal government—specifically the U.S. Education Department’s office for civil rights.
The federal government also supplies billions of dollars a year for K-12 districts to spend on the nation’s 7.5 million K-12 students with disabilities. Paying for the services these students need can be several orders of magnitude more expensive than the average cost of educating a traditional student.
The broad outlines of plans and proposals Trump has shared so far include sweeping efforts to cut spending, roll back civil rights protections, and shrink the federal bureaucracy.
But many of Trump’s most radical education proposals contain contradictions or lack key details that experts say will have to be worked out before they can move forward.
In order to eliminate or shrink the U.S. Department of Education, for instance, policymakers would need to more clearly decide whether the department’s functions would move to other agencies or cease altogether.
Even once lawmakers iron out policy details, passing legislation won’t always be a cinch, even with Republicans controlling majorities in both chambers of Congress. Some bills that aren’t related to the federal budget would require a handful of Democratic senators to side with the Republican majority, which is far from a sure bet. And the razor-thin GOP majority in the House of Representatives would require Republicans to be almost entirely unified in order to pass bills through that chamber.
Those are the logistical challenges Trump and his party face. But what would the consequences be for special education if they achieve their policy goals? Education Week asked five of the nation’s leading experts to weigh in:
Meghan Burke, a professor of special education at Vanderbilt University
Betsey Helfrich, a special education lawyer representing districts in Kansas and Missouri
JD Hsin, an assistant professor of education and civil rights law at the University of Alabama School of Law
Tammy Kolbe, a principal researcher for the American Institutes for Research
Julia Martin, a legislative director for the Bruman Group, an education law firm based in Washington that represents states and school districts
Nate Stevenson, an associate professor of special education at Kent State University
Some details aren’t yet clear, but here are the possibilities worth contemplating—and a few that are highly unlikely.
