Trump administration tries to gut special education department amid government shutdown

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from laying off thousands of authorities employees including nearly all of the workers in the Department of Teaching s special schooling division a move advocates have warned would have disastrous consequences for millions of students across the country including in California Before the ruling was issued the layoffs had wiped out the Office of Special Mentoring and Rehabilitative Services including its Office of Special Guidance Programs which ensures children with disabilities receive a free quality guidance under federal law and oversees around billion in special mentoring funding Nearly instruction department employees were let go including more than staffers who worked in the special instruction division Employees in the department s Office for Civil Rights which is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws in schools and protecting students with disabilities from discrimination were also laid off Related Articles Staff students remark on state of the Sunnyvale School District West Contra Costa schools brace for possible trainer staff strikes Notre Dame High s Women of Impact honorees have a family connection East Bay cheer coach guilty of sexually abusing students in split verdict Big Tech is paying millions to train teachers on AI in a push to bring chatbots into classrooms In a social media post Wednesday Training Secretary Linda McMahon noted the governing body shutdown has forced agencies to re-evaluate what federal responsibilities are truly critical for Americans and reaffirmed the Department of Coaching is unnecessary The layoffs follow the Trump administration s layoffs in March when the Department of Coaching slashed nearly of the department s workforce a move that was challenged by several states including California but was ultimately triumphant thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in July In her post Wednesday McMahon noted no tuition funding including funding for special training has been impacted by the layoffs But advocates pointed out that nearly every person in charge of administering and overseeing the billions of dollars dispersed to states through the Individuals with Disabilities Schooling Act was fired and the pending layoffs threaten funding for years to come The department was way understaffed to do what they do prior to last Friday s cuts declared Chad Rummel the executive director of the Council for Exceptional Children a nonprofit advocacy group for students with disabilities There s exclusively no way that anything s going to get done with the minimal employees that are left Rummel announced the Office of Special Training and Rehabilitative Services is responsible for ensuring states are complying with special teaching law and that state funding is spent appropriately He declared the office also provides encouragement and tools for educators and schools and serves as a safety net for parents through the Office of Civil Rights which handles complaints and investigations when discrimination against students is suspected But because of the downsizing of staff in the coaching department Rummel revealed the Office of Civil Rights which had more than backlogged cases when McMahon was appointed now has more than backlogged cases more than half of which are special schooling cases And there s little to no staff left to handle them Rummel reported California received billion in special training funding from the federal governing body for the - school year according to the California Department of Instruction According to Disability Rights California a nonprofit disability rights group that funding supports nearly of all of California s students and supplements everything from Individualized Learning Programs and community-led groups to materials for parents and development for teachers The domino effect of the gutting of these agencies may mean that special training programs that previously ran steadily would have to essentially lobby the California Department of Instruction for their funding in competition with other population goods fighting anew for the civil rights protections and supports that have been enshrined in law for decades the organization commented in a announcement Rummel announced before students with disabilities in the U S were not allowed to attend school or were segregated from their peers and not taught The federal administration stepped in to create the Individuals with Disabilities Learning Act ensuring equity across all states and promising a free appropriate inhabitants development for all students But school districts don t consistently follow the law disclosed Allegra Cira Fischer a senior strategy attorney with Disability Rights California And it can be confusing and overwhelming for parents to handle the process especially if they re encountering pushback from the school she added If a candidate isn t getting the services they need parents can file a complaint with the California Office of Administrative Hearings or the federal civil rights office But the process can be challenging to understand without the assistance of a lawyer which can be costly The staff at the Office of Civil Rights who are tasked with helping families file complaints have been laid off Rummel pointed out There s no one answering the phones There s no one taking those complaints right now There s no one responding to them Rummel explained They can barely get the complaints logged let alone truly investigate them So that safety net s absolutely gone for parents unless they have funding to file a lawsuit There are at present Free and Masses Mentoring open investigations according to the Office of Civil Rights and special instruction California cases for the - fiscal year According to an EdSource analysis in California sees far more special teaching disputes on average than the greater part other states and parents requests for mediation in California represented nearly half of the requests nationwide in - Rummel reported the emergency at the special tuition division is a prime example of the disastrous consequences shutting down the Department of Teaching would have on students and schools across the country We re only saving a meager million dollars by cutting these employees but we re throwing the entire system into chaos We re not just pulling a brick out of the wall We re pulling the whole wall down right now Rummel announced This is a five-alarm fire This is not fearmongering This is not us trying to scare people right now There s been an elimination and there s no plan in place