Devastating Impact of Closing the Department of Education
The president’s recent order to close the Department of Education is a grave decision with tragic impact on students with learning disabilities.
This indispensable department provides accountability and protection of students’ educational rights, training and resources for schools, and funding to make education accessible for students who are otherwise underserved by our educational system.
The Department of Education monitors and empowers each state to follow the legal provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), ensuring a free and appropriate education to students with disabilities.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was passed by congress in 1975, and accountability set up within the Department of Education. This was created to address the harmful separation and disparity occurring in our schools for students with disabilities.
Before the IDEA, students with physical, mental, or learning disabilities were commonly placed in separate, poor and underfunded schools or programs, apart from friends and community, and with unequipped teachers. These students did not get the help they needed or access to appropriate education, they were simply isolated and set aside.
The IDEA now protects and supports students who fall into several categories of disabilities, including students with:
Specific Learning Disabilities such as dyscalculia, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia
Speech or language impairments
ADHD
Autism
Intellectual disabilities
Emotional conditions such as anxiety or bipolar disorder
Developmental delays
Multiple disabilities or co-occurring disabilities
Hearing impairments and deafness
Orthopedic impairments
Visual impairments and blindness
Traumatic brain injuries
Closing the Department of Education means that students with all these disabilities will not be guaranteed access to basic education rights, opportunities, resources, and necessary supports granted by the IDEA and monitored by the Department of Education. It cuts federal programs that provide teacher training on education for students with disabilities. My child, and yours, will no longer be guaranteed by law to receive supports such as classroom accommodations, individual education plans, learning support staff, or special education services.
This will be especially devastating to low income families who rely on the school’s support services because they cannot afford private schools, private tutors, and private occupational and physical therapies.
It does not make a country great again to only provide accessible education to those who are white, wealthy, neurotypical, and able-bodied.
The administration claims that closing the education department is a positive move because it returns control to the states. This statement portrays an obvious forgetfulness for how schools operated prior to the IDEA, when states were left alone to manage special education services, without oversight of the Department of Education.
The Department of Education does not govern states on what or how to teach. They simply require and monitor that states provide ALL students with an accessible education, one that includes education for those with physical, mental, or learning disability needs.
Withdrawing federal support, resources, and accountability, means these students will once again fall into depressing poor, under-funded classrooms with untrained teachers and limited resources. The most vulnerable students will once again be set aside and excluded from educational opportunities and rights as U.S. citizens.
Most of our states already struggle to provide adequate education for students. They cannot afford this additional cost. Nor will most states continue to provide an appropriate education to students with disabilities if they are not held accountability and required to do so.
This is calamitous and overwhelming news. Today I asked myself, “What is one realistic thing I can do?”
I have decided to share more openly with my friends, family, neighbors, and anyone I know about the very real impact this closure will have on our family and my own child’s education. Making the impact personal and relevant is the best way to share our concerns and raise awareness.
Will you join me in starting the conversation in your communities? Hopefully our shared experiences and personal stories will change how our individuals and politicians vote, so that together we can provide a safe place for ALL our children to learn.
Read more about the impact in this article by The Learning Disabilities Association of America.
Read more about the history of the IDEA in this Understood.org article.
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