Imagine you are an 11-year-old growing up in America in 1974, the year before President Gerald Ford signs into law legislation that will eventually become known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Your passion is reading; in the last month alone, you’ve devoured A Wrinkle in Time and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
But because you have cerebral palsy and are a wheelchair user, every morning you watch from your window as kids walk to their neighborhood school. You aren’t allowed to go.
“We can’t handle her needs,” the school district has repeatedly told your parents. And they can’t. There are no ramps, no accessible bathrooms, and no trained teachers for special needs. Without IEPs and IDEA, you can’t go to school. At all.
For parents like me, this reality hits close to home. My daughter Lexi has a gifted IQ as well as a severe form of cerebral palsy that keeps her from walking and speaking. She and I have spent a decade writing together to share the disability experience with readers. Our second book, Fooled, is a middle-grade novel about a group of special education students fighting to reclaim their educational rights from a school and district that had ignored IDEA. The story is speculative fiction—or so we thought.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education sent sweeping layoff notices to more than 400 employees. A federal judge has since temporarily halted the layoffs while their legality is challenged in court. If the layoffs proceed, it will mean the loss of nearly every employee in the Education Department office of special education, which is tasked with overseeing IDEA compliance and protecting millions of students with disabilities. This devastating blow would gut federal oversight, leaving much of the responsibility of implementation on overburdened state education departments and local school districts.
Compliance with IDEA is already by no means universal. In their most recent assessment, the department found that only 19 out of 50 states (38%) meet IDEA’s requirements. The reasons why are multifaceted, but one thing is clear: Few states enforce serious consequences when their districts don’t comply with the law.
Instead of addressing the long-standing issues with the implementation of IDEA, including full funding that was promised but never delivered, the Trump administration has now taken drastic steps toward its stated goal to close the U.S. Department of Education.
Disability advocates have been swift and united in denouncing the move. How can we possibly expect states that aren’t currently following federal requirements to do a better job with less accountability, funding, and oversight?
Our demand for answers has been ignored. The Trump administration has issued no statement directly assuring disability advocates that enforcement of IDEA will continue under recent changes to the Education Department or under its long-term plan to shift IDEA enforcement to the Health and Human Services Department.
It’s no secret that this administration has waged war on people with disabilities—gutting Medicaid, endangering home- and community-based services, and shirking federal enforcement of civil rights laws.
At a time when reckless, shortsighted plans are being thrown out like beads at a Mardi Gras parade, there is an understandable tendency to just shut all this out. But what if that 11-year-old with cerebral palsy was in your classroom—or was your own child? How far would you go to get her the education she deserves and is, for now, guaranteed by our federal government?
When enforcement of IDEA falters, more and more disabled students risk being isolated in under-resourced settings. Schools could fail to provide appropriate supports and services—a de facto exclusion for many. The choice before us is stark: federal protection for our most vulnerable students or a return to the days when disability meant educational exile.
Now, our country’s nearly 8 million students with disabilities once again find themselves fighting for access to the free, appropriate public education guaranteed by IDEA, despite repeated assurances from Secretary Linda McMahon that federal funding for special education would be protected.
It is important for educators to stand with students and mobilize through professional organizations to protect the free and appropriate public education promised to all students. Contact your representatives immediately and tell them that dismantling the Education Department’s office of special education programs without guaranteeing IDEA enforcement is unacceptable. Our children’s futures—and our nation’s commitment to equality—depend on what we do next.
My fellow writer and disability advocate Molly Felder said it best in a post on Facebook: “Either you think I’m equal to you or you don’t. Which side are you on?... It shouldn’t have to happen to you for it to matter to you.”
