New federal guidance threatens to upend decades of progress in high school transition planning, which helps students with disabilities prepare for college, the workforce, and living independently, advocates and researchers say.
In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that states must eliminate unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities and ensure they receive services in “the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.” The ruling established that unjustified institutionalization constitutes discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
But in June, the U.S. Department of Justice stated it “will not rely upon the Olmstead Guidance in its enforcement” of the ADA, and that Olmstead is “not enforceable.”
The Olmstead ruling has for decades served as the backbone of students’ individualized education programs (IEPs) by requiring transition plans that teach students with disabilities 16 and older independent living skills.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, transition plans must include goals related to postsecondary education or training, employment, and, if appropriate, independent living.
“To have a document that says segregated living is OK and transitioning into that integrated setting isn’t the priority, it’s really the antithesis of what we’re working for for 21 years of their lives in special education,” said Meghan Burke, a professor of special education at Vanderbilt University. “If now we’re saying it’s no longer the goal for youth with disabilities to be living in the community, it could potentially turn everything in transition planning on its head.”
The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment, and the White House press office referred questions to the DOJ.
DOJ guidance could confuse schools
While the new DOJ guidance does not change existing law—Olmstead has not been overturned—it sends a confusing message to districts charged with preparing all students for postsecondary success, Burke said.
In schools, transition planning teaches daily skills like paying rent or keeping a clean home, Burke said. Those skills are crucial to ensuring that when a child graduates, they are on the right track to live and work among their peers without disabilities, rather than being forced into a segregated community.
“Protecting the expectation and the right of adults with disabilities in adulthood starts with ensuring that we’re making transition planning for children with disabilities as robust and successful as possible,” said Karrie Shogren, director of the Kansas University Center on Disabilities.
Because many educators receive little training on the transition to adult services, the new DOJ guidance could be misinterpreted as a new legal requirement, Burke said.
“It’s sending a message that we, as a country, are backtracking and lowering the bar,” Burke said. “But Olmstead and the values behind it still stand—that we should have high expectations for students with disabilities and independent living is the goal that we’re striving toward.”
In a July letter to top leaders at the DOJ, three Democratic congressmen—Bobby Scott, Jamie Raskin, and Frank Pallone—demanded the department rescind the new guidance, calling it an “insult to people with disabilities.”
“[The guidance] would represent a stunning reversal of decades of effort on the part of the Department across multiple Democratic and Republican administrations to enforce Olmstead, which held that unjustified segregation of persons with disabilities constitutes discrimination,” the letter read.
It continued: If the new DOJ guidance “were implemented, it would amount to the DOJ abandoning its commitment to protect disabled people who just want to live, work, learn, and participate in their communities.”
Inclusive classrooms benefit all children
Research shows that inclusive education—integrating students with disabilities into general education classrooms—benefits both students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers.
Students without disabilities develop empathy, learn collaboration, and refine communication skills by working and playing with students who have disabilities, the research says.
Meanwhile, inclusive classrooms give students with disabilities greater access to grade-level content and foster a stronger sense of belonging, experts say.
“It goes back to this idea that when we understand that everyone has the right to live in the community and be a part of the community in adulthood, K-12 education has a big role to play in fostering that,” Shogren said. “We really can build more effective teaching and learning when there [are] high expectations for what students with and without disabilities can do together.”
