One evening this May, about a dozen young adults and their families gathered with faculty of TerpsEXCEED, an inclusive two-year post-secondary education program at the University of Maryland for students with intellectual disabilities.
They celebrated the students who had just completed the program—which meant having to navigate situations like living in dorm rooms, finding lecture halls, engaging in career center resources, just as any typical college student would—and welcomed five additional young people who had been accepted into the program for this coming fall.
But amid the overall celebratory mood of the event, undertones of uncertainty hung in the air over how potential pending federal budget cuts might affect access to higher education programs for students with intellectual disabilities.
One parent openly lamented the possibility that she might not be able to cover the costs of the TerpsEXCEED program for her child, who’d been accepted as an incoming freshman for the 2025-26 academic year, if potential federal cuts result in a “trickle-down” effect on support offered by the Maryland State Department of Education’s Division of Rehabilitation Services, DORS, said TerpsEXCEED director Amy Dwyre D’Agati.
“It would be devastating if they suddenly cut some of that funding and DORS said they could no longer pay that [tuition, room and board],” said D’Agati.
Because attending college historically was not an option for this population, many families whose children have an intellectual disability haven’t opened a college savings plan for them and, therefore, may not be prepared to pay for higher education, D’Agati said. To date, DORS has financially supported eligible TerpsEXCEED students with these costs.
Kimberlee Schultz, DORS spokesperson, said any risks to future funding from the state are unknown until the U.S. Department of Education’s budget—which includes the Rehabilitation Services Administration, which oversees grant programs that help individuals with disabilities—is finalized.
What’s more, D’Agati had hoped by the time of the end-of-year celebration to have written a grant proposal that, if accepted, would allow for the program’s expansion to additional colleges and universities across Maryland. But those plans are on hold due to uncertainty over the status of the federal grant program that supports the creation and growth of these inclusive postsecondary programs.
“Everybody just waits on pins and needles,” said D’Agati, referring to the request for proposals that would open up applications for Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSID) grants. “That would be a huge hit if the RFP didn’t come out.”
Inclusive post-secondary programs reach only a fraction of eligible students
TerpsEXCEED, like other inclusive higher education programs around the country, captures only a fraction of the nation’s more than 420,000 school-age students who have intellectual disabilities—many of whom attend public schools from kindergarten through high school alongside their typically developing peers.
But only about 2% of these students will attend college after high school, according to Think College, a national center dedicated to improving access to higher education for students with intellectual disabilities based at University of Massachusetts Boston’s Institute for Community Inclusion.
Even when inclusive programs like TerpsEXCEED do exist, they generally only enroll a small percentage of qualified candidates, due to staffing and budget constraints.
“Every year, we get 30-plus applicants, and we can accept only enough students to replace our current graduating class of six or seven,” said D’Agati, one of just three University of Maryland staff members assigned to operate the program.
Since 2009 when Think College began tracking the growth of inclusive higher education programs, they have been steadily rising nationwide—from 149 to 363 this year.
This growth coincides with the advent in 2008 of the U.S. Department of Education’s TPSID grants, which launched in 2010 and are designed to be renewed every five years.
President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026, which has to be approved by Congress, would continue to fund the TPSID grant at $13.8 million. But the administration’s general sweeping funding cuts have left advocates on edge.
The request for proposals for this year’s TPSID grants, normally released by the Office of Postsecondary Education by the end of spring, still aren’t out, D’Agati said. The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.
During the 2023-24 academic year, TPSID grants supported 551 students in 41 inclusive programs at 39 college and university campuses in 16 states, representing about one-third of the nation’s post-secondary education programs for students with intellectual disabilities, according to Think College.
Disability rights advocates also fear that the Trump administration’s proposed budget changes could adversely affect funding of for Parent Training and Information Centers, or PTIs, which help families of students with intellectual disabilities navigate post-high school education options like TerpsEXCEED.
While the budget proposal doesn’t change the amount of money allocated to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which supports special education services, it would consolidate several grant programs under IDEA—including the $38.6 million PTI grants—and distribute those funds to states.
Advocates are worried that if this change goes into effect, some states will divert that money to school choice programs instead of funding PTIs, said Liz Zogby, director of the special education policy and advocacy project of the Maryland Down Syndrome Advocacy Coalition. She’s also concerned that there would be no way to fund a national PTI to support the state or regional organizations.
Any potential slowdown in the growth of inclusive higher education programs or the ability of some students to participate due to lack of funding spells bad news both for prospective students with intellectual disabilities, as they allow them to become more independent and have more employment prospects, and for broader society, say advocates.
“When we are able to include individuals with disabilities into our wider communities, that’s a benefit to all of us,” said Zogby, parent to a 14-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, whom she refers to as a “natural performer” involved in a local improv group. “There’s so much potential that she has to share with the world, and whether the world will be able to take advantage of that—that is under threat.”
State support is growing
Immersive higher education programs like TerpsEXCEED help students with intellectual disabilities develop their potential, just like any college student. TerpsEXCEED students can live on campus and have access to courses—both general college courses and those specific to the TerpsEXCEED program—student organizations, career development activities, work experiences, internships, paid jobs, and additional support from staff and trained student mentors.
“They are typical students. They get the student tickets to the games. They can participate in recreational sports, which they do, often with mentors. They work on campus,” D’Agati said.
Many states have begun to recognize the benefits of these programs. This May, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed into law a bill to add $350,000 annually to the state budget to support the TerpsEXCEED program.
“We’re seeing a significant amount of state investment, both in program development and providing resources to not just plan the development and implementation of higher ed. programs for people with intellectual disability, but also create access to existing scholarship funds that, based on the way they were initially developed, might unintentionally exclude a college student with an intellectual disability,” said Meg Grigal, director of Think College and a senior research fellow at the Institute for Community Inclusion at University of Massachusetts, Boston.
“College actually helps people [with intellectual disabilities] get better jobs and have better adult lives, and that’s catching on,” she said.
There’s so much potential that she has to share with the world, and whether the world will be able to take advantage of that—that is under threat.
Think College has been deliberate about spreading awareness of these options. A few years ago, it launched a public awareness campaign called Think Higher. Central to the campaign is a four-minute video featuring students with intellectual disabilities sharing what they personally have gotten out of attending inclusive college programs.
The Think College website also tracks information related to inclusive higher education programs by state. K-12 educators can use the resource to find state-specific details about programs, related legislation, and even contact information.
“If there’s only one or two inclusive post-secondary education programs in your state, it’s less likely the [K-12] educators in that state are aware of them,” Grigal said.
Families might not be aware, either.
And while options are increasing, the number of students eligible far exceed programs available.
“In 2004, there were only about 25 [immersive higher education] programs that we could identify. Now we have 363,” Grigal said. “But there’s over 5,000 colleges and universities in the United States, so even 363 is still less than 10% of the possible options.”
Students with individual disabilities have been getting services their whole lives through the K-12 school system, said advocate and parent Zogby. But when they turn 21, those services are no longer guaranteed—and the uncertainty around the availability of continued education opportunities puts their future in flux.
“Now they’re literally coming to a cliff where there may or may not be additional supports and services for them,” Zogby said. “There’s a lot of unknown about what’s going to happen for those kids.”
