Special Education Updates: How Federal Proposals Could Affect Our Kids

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that grants all children the right to a free, appropriate public education. With potential changes to federal education departments on the horizon, many parents of students with disabilities are understandably concerned how these changes could affect their children’s access to education.

Here to help us understand what’s at stake is Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA). During our conversation, Denise went over what’s changing, what’s not, and what we need to know to protect our children’s rights. Watch the full replay of our live webinar above, or check out this recap for the highlights of our discussion.

Hey, everybody, welcome to Undivided Live. I'm Lindsay Crain, and I head the Content and Community teams at Undivided, so thank you for being here today. We are thrilled to have with us Denise Marshall, the CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, also known as COPAA. Denise will be sharing the very latest updates on the Department of Education, special ed proposed funding cuts, legal challenges to civil rights for our kids, and how all of this could affect the everyday lives of our students. President Trump is proposing over $12 billion in cuts to the U.S. Department of Education budget for the fiscal year that starts October 1st.

As this school year is wrapping up, many of us are wondering what we’ll be returning to in the fall. So what's already been cut? What's on the table? What's the current and projected impact for kids with disabilities? And importantly, what can we do? There are many questions and issues to dissect and COPAA is one of the leading forces protecting our kids’ educational rights. Denise Marshall has led COPAA since 2005. She has over 40 years experience in the field of disabilities in a variety of supports, management, and advocacy capacities at esteemed organizations including TASH, Maryland Leaders in Disability Policy, and the National Training Center for the Kennedy Krieger Institute. She's also a proud grandmother to three grandchildren, one of whom has Down syndrome. So welcome, Denise. Thank you so much for being here. So, Denise, I'd like to start broadly and talk about the very existence of the Department of Education, and please correct me if I get something wrong, because it's hard to keep up with the changes on a daily basis, but the administration, they've stated that they want to eliminate the Department of Education, although it does take an act of Congress to officially do this. They laid off hundreds of workers in March, only to have a judge in late May ordered those employees back, and as of last week, at least, I read that those employees had not yet received communications on returning to work, and now the feds are escalating the case to the Supreme Court. So what is the current standing of the Department of Education?

Yeah, so the Department of Education is still there. As you said, it would take an act of Congress to effectively dismantle it or take it away, but one of the things that the judge... you mentioned the case out of Massachusetts that the American Federation for Teachers and some other districts within Massachusetts brought. One of the things that the judge said is that they seem to be simultaneously saying, we know it takes an act of Congress to dismantle the Department of Education, but in the meantime, we're just going to dismantle it ourselves by firing all these people, and so that's kind of the crux of the... I think of the issue there, is how much authority do they have, and right now, that case is pending, as you said, the Supreme Court. The Trump administration asked for what's called a stay on that order to rehire everyone and that was denied, and that's when it was bumped up to the Supreme Court, so we'll see how that goes. I mean, we... COPAA also has a lawsuit. Specifically though, ours is focusing on the closure and the dismantling of the Office for Civil Rights, so I don't know how much detail to provide, but one of the things the... Over 1,300 employees were let go and they were... the majority of which were from either the Federal Office for Student Aid or the Office for Civil Rights. Those are the two largest with almost 300 employees, or over 300 in the Department of Federal Aid and almost 300 from the Office for Civil Rights. They closed seven offices across the country. So on one hand, they're saying, “Oh, we know we can't close the Department of Ed without an act of Congress,” but on the other hand, they're decimating the workforce and there are legitimate questions as to what they are actually able to continue to do. Many of the functions, for example, of the Office for Civil Rights are mandated by statute, so it's still up in the air quite a bit. And I definitely want to dive more into the Office for Civil Rights in a minute too, because that, of course like you said, has been one of the scariest things that we've seen so far with the Department of Ed, but for clarity, also the federal administration, as most people know, has suggested that the Department of Ed be moved under the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.

So what is the biggest concern if it does move under HHS? Yeah, so let's first of all be clear and say that it has not moved, because when you look at... sometimes at the media, it's again unclear because they'll say it's moving, it's moved, or whatever, but it has not moved. And COPAA, along with many, many other advocacy organizations, families, teachers, the Council for Exceptional Children, one of the leading professional organizations for educators, are all against that, and the reason is, Congress and research and families and educators have all worked together for years, almost 50 years in the case of the IDEA, to really put together a concerted package of legislation and information to really move forward educating our kids, to hold them to have the same high standards that other kids are taught, to expand their opportunities, to make sure that there's equal access, and we feel, first and foremost, that moving the department under HHS, under a medical model, is a giant step backwards, and we would... I’m not going to take my grandson or my child to the pediatrician to learn to do math or to learn how to read. I want an educator who's knowledgeable about those strategies, who knows what the research says, who's applied that research and been effective with students, being the one leading it and not transferring it over into a system of just pure chaos. I think that that's, from our perspective, one of the objectives seems to be just to throw everything into chaos, so that other things can happen over on the side. I know we're also probably going to talk about block granting, the part D of of the IDEA. There's a hope, I think, that people will be so busy over here that they won't notice what's happening over here, and we're trying our best to notice it all and to keep people informed about each and every one of those items, but in terms of the Department of Ed, it's kind of in a holding pattern right now. We don't know what is actually going on within... inside of the department or how they could possibly be carrying out their mandated functions with so few staff. Right, and a point of clarity: if the Department of Ed would be eliminated, would IDEA be eliminated? Well, I mean, in order to... it's like which came first, the chicken or the egg? The Secretary of Education has specific obligations and duties under the IDEA, so that's why it would take an act of Congress to eliminate the department and then part of that, the discussion would have to be had around the IDEA. Now the department is saying that they have no plans on attacking or trying to take down the IDEA, and we have seen really... we have not seen necessarily a direct attack on it until recently with this budget, because changing any parts of the IDEA in this case would be through a back door kind of mechanism, through a policy rider that would go through appropriations as opposed to a full amending of the law that would go through Congress. That would change the statute. It wouldn't eliminate the statute, but it would change the requirements of the statute. And I'm sorry if I missed if you said this, Denise, but when will or should we have a definitive answer on the fate of the Department of Education? Is that going to be the Supreme Court case?

Is that... Yeah. No, I mean I... yeah, we don't know, I don't think. I think that we don't know when that will happen, but... and the Supreme Court may or may not decide to hear the case. Sometimes they just push it right back to the lower court, and/or just decline to hear it, which would leave the current rulings standing, so we just don't know. And as you just touched on in last Friday's education budget update, we learned a bit more about the possibility of consolidating several components of IDEA into a single funding stream. So one highlight or lowlight that you just touched on is that part D of IDEA is being proposed to be eliminated with funding being rolled into state grants, and then states can then decide how they will spend that money. So on the surface, maybe some would think that state control might sound positive, but it raises a lot of questions. So first, Denise, can you explain what part D provides in case some don't know. Yeah, so the IDEA... Congress, when passing the IDEA, I first want to say, left many things to the states. They left decisions about curriculum, about all kinds of things relating to education of students with disabilities to the states. They did not, however, leave anything within part D to the States. And so that is one big problem with that, is that it would be changing the statute. But part D is typically... So there's part B, which is the big piece that provides funding and oversees or provides the structure for how services to students with disabilities is provided within the school system. Part C is the early intervention and then part D is discretionary grants, so that has typically been like the parent information and training centers, research grants, and that kind of thing are all under part D. And can you give us... Yeah, and you mentioned PTIs. Can you just give us a couple specific examples of programs that are under that part, just because the categories you're talking about, they're very broad, vast, and vital, but I think people need to really understand maybe some specific programs as well. If you could just name a couple so people understand the... Yeah, so personnel development grants are under there, technical assistance and dissemination, so just being able... I always say to people, “How many times do you look up a document when you're going to an IEP meeting or you're trying to advocate on behalf of a student? How many times have you looked up best practice, have you looked up what does... what's required for technology, for instance, or communication under the law?” Those documents that come out, those policy briefs, those technical assistance briefs that come out, families use them, but educators rely on them to know what is happening, and particularly given the turnover within the states, in the state departments, you used... When I first started umpteen moons ago, state directors were around for 20 years. You had the same state director and the same people within the department. Now, John Eisenberg who leads the State Directors of Special Ed told me that the majority of their special education state directors have been in the job for less than three years, and many of them do not know the requirements of the law, and that's where those technical assistance centers and the research grants come... Research is important not only to show what has been effective, but also to discover new things that will be effective, so it's scary and I think right now, the way I understand it is that those services under part D have not necessarily been cut, but they also haven't been expanded, even though we know the numbers of kids have gone up exponentially, but what they're saying, they've zeroed out five or six specific budget lines and combined them into one block grant, so there's no new money, there's no increase there.

And then states, if it passes, would have the latitude to decide whether or not to continue, for example, providing preschool special education grants, or doing personnel prep, or continuing the parent information and training centers, which are really a lifeline for many families when they... especially, I think, when they... when first, perhaps when their child is diagnosed, but also when things change at the state level, laws are continually being amended, passed, revoked, changed, and families need to... in order to be meaningful partners in their child's education, they need to understand all that, so it's very concerning. It is and we just... we had a question come in just to go back a little bit about the Department of Ed, but they said, “Is the AMA voicing an opinion about the proposed move to HHS?” I haven't seen one. I will have to say officially I don't know, but I haven't seen anything from... I assume they mean the American Medical Association? I’m assuming. Yeah. So if anyone here has those connections, then let's get them... Let's get them on board to speaking out. Yeah. Our kids, we're way past the medical model. We are light years past fixing... try and curing, in most cases. I know there are still some efforts on some specific diagnoses where people want that, but by and large, we have moved the field to embrace our kids, and their strengths, and their abilities, and their contributions, and the things that they can do. That's what we want to focus on, and it just... like I said, aside from real practical loss of expertise and technical assistance and years of research and just, like I said, a... it's been a concerted effort from Congress to align a lot of different laws with the Workforce Investment Act, the IDEA, 504, I mean, all these laws protect in different ways and provide different things, but they're intended to work together from the same value, which is that kids with disabilities are general education students, and I don't usually say first, because from my perspective, they’re always general education students, and when they get diagnosed and eligible for special education services, those services and supports are to be provided to enable them to make progress in the general education curriculum alongside their peers without disabilities, and none of that has changed, and we want to be sure that that remains the primary driver of our kids’ education. Right, which is very hard to do if we don't have the proper supports, right? And I had a follow up question on the part D, because I wanted to use a specific example for a larger question, which you were... you were alluding to about those state grants. So each state has a deafblind project supported by the National Center on Deaf-Blindness and many of those state projects are 100% funded by part D of IDEA, so if part D funding is now eliminated and folded into state grants, it seems that states could decide to dissolve their state deafblind projects and spend the money where they want, so I guess that’s... -- Right. That's the clarification I wanted from you Is, would states now be entitled to eliminate any program they want within these state block grants, since they are not coming from a directed funding stream? That's the way they're... that's the way it's currently being proposed, yes, and that is one of the major concerns. Right, which includes PTIs, like you mentioned, all... everything that you just talked about under part D then becomes optional for states. Right. And would the state grants even need to be spent on IDEA or special education related services? I believe they would.

That I'm not 100% sure of, how it's written right now, but that is something certainly that people need to pay attention to. Yeah. Those are the questions we need to be asking, right? Again.... -- Those are the questions. This partial clarification on Friday, getting more details, so there's still a lot of questions that we need to be asking. And yeah, and Denise, when does the final budget need to be set? What's our timeline for these potential changes? September 30th. And so if there is no pass, it will need to go to a continuing resolution because October 1 is when the new budget is supposed to take place or take effect. So states would have to start making the budgeting decisions starting October 1st? When would we start seeing these changes at the state level if something... whatever changes would go through, when would we start seeing those actual changes? Yeah, that's my understanding, is that it would be in the new fiscal year because it's the FY 2026, which is... begins in... on October 1st. And what we're hearing from people is a lot of states are already starting to worry about and make decisions, budgetary decisions on the chance that they aren't going to get some funds, and that's extremely concerning as well, and so I think, just to this upheaval without a whole lot of detail is what is also concerning, and so at this point our message is tell your Congress, Senators, and House of Representatives to vote about what's already passed the House, but just in case there's future activity there, depending on what happens in the Senate, with the reconciliation, just be telling all of your elected officials, “No, do not pass this budget.” And then be prepared for possible heavy advocacy within your own state to protect and ensure that vital programs continue to exist. And I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, like you said, right now. -- Because, I mean, now that's the thing. I think that people... there's a... there's a narrative that doing this will save money, will allow states to be more effective, and in fact, they will cost the states more in times when states are already struggling with their state budgets, and they will need to figure out how to either find money to replace what's been lost or fill the gaps, retrain people, let's say the funding for, parent information training centers does go away. Then who fills that service, if anyone, or is that something that people are just prepared to go without? And we did have a question, because I know you had mentioned preschool education, so I'd love for you to explain the proposed changes for preschool funding and how that could affect local districts. Well, so my understanding right now is that part C is... remains the same. There have been no changes to the IDEA under what's required. in the funding for part C. The biggest change that I'm aware of right now is the inclusion of the preschool special education grants that they're talking about consolidating as part of the part D, so that could eliminate preschool and the access to preschool for large numbers of students. Okay. And another thing that we heard four years ago, or eight years ago, and that we're hearing again, is school choice. And so school choice is back on the table and that families could use IDEA funds to pay for private schools. That's what they're pushing for. And some families might be excited about the fact they have options beyond public schools, but detractors are angry that this further diminishes funding for public schools, and so we also really want to clarify for families, if parents are using state dollars to fund their child's private school, does IDEA apply to their children in those private schools? Well, there's a complicated formula for the state level of... Because some services may be provided, but it's on a much reduced level than it is for what is required if the child attends public schools or a school that receives federal funding, so that's another piece of the question is whether or not the school, even if it's private, receives any level of federal funding, but generally speaking, the biggest concern is that you lose your rights under federal law, when... and states have been very specific in their quest to break that chain of funding by giving money to the parents directly, for example, if they're using federal funds or if they're even through state funded... I'm sorry.

There are... there's only one federally funded voucher program right now in Washington, DC., but when they break the funding from the state and give it to the parent, then the parent goes and secures the placement in the school, then they're basically... it's a private placement. It's a parent paying for that placement, and therefore they lose a lot of their rights, and/or the schools have less oversight. There's the ability to counsel students out, to... we've heard a lot from families across the country where their child was accepted, and then they take the money... they get... the school gets the money from the state, and then they kick their child out in the first quarter of the year, the school still has the money because they've already been paid. The child has no placement, and then, particularly if they have a... what we call a dangerous reputation or a reputation for behaviors, that it may be very difficult to find another placement, and then the parent says, “Okay, I guess we have to go back to public school,” but guess what. When you took your child out of public school, placed them into private school, you withdrew them, so now you have to go through the whole process of applying for eligibility again. We've heard horror stories of kids who've been out of school for two years trying to go through that. So yes, COPAA doesn't have a position against vouchers per se, because we know there are a lot of families that... and students who have benefited from that model, but we are very against the loss of rights. States can construct a voucher program in any way that they choose, and some have maintained some rights. Some still follow the IEPs, for example, still have the Child Find requirements, but they may have, less rights when it comes to due process or challenging, so people really need to do an incredible job of finding out what does your state program look like. What rights do you retain? What rights do you have to give up? What choices are there, really? What is the... I don't know if you want to call it the history or the reputation of the schools in terms of serving students. Is it a better fit? Have they made that commitment? Are students able to stay in the program and get benefit from it. And we just... we had a follow up question from the audience, and it says, “So if parents are able to use the voucher money how they want, are they required to actually use it for education? Is there any chance of parents who are not advocates for their children's education could possibly use it for whatever they want?” I guess that depends on how most state programs, if not all that I’m aware of, require it to be used for education, but some of them are are fairly loose in terms of what that looks like. Education could be visiting a horse farm three times a week or... I mean, it all depends, and that's also the beauty of it for some families, because their child can be educated in a way that's meaningful to them, but in the end, it all kind of comes down to oversight as well. Is there any oversight happening? Exactly. And we also had another clarification question. They said, “So there is the reconciliation bill. Is that the one proposing to merge part B and D, or is it a separate 2026 budget bill proposing these changes? So the... For IDEA, that's an appropriations bill, not the reconciliation bill. So the reconciliation is the other... this... I think they're calling it the Big Beautiful Bill, which is again, say one thing, do another, to me, but that's a piece... that's where each of the committees in the... for example, in the Senate, have to come up... They have a... the House has already passed it. Now the Senate is looking at the bill, and they're supposed to come up with how they are going to save the money that's required to be saved from their committee, so the HELP committee, which is the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which is where school SpEd has come out and said, well, they're going to change the rules for the Pell Grants, which means that they're going to take away some of the flexibility and save money that way, which of course affects students with disabilities greatly, because instead of having flexibility in terms of the numbers of hours or how it's structured, it's going to have a set rigid 15 hour -- I believe is the number -- requirement, and also to student loans.

We haven't yet seen what the finance committee is going... they haven't released what they are to do, but our expectation is that that's where the voucher tax credit is coming as well as the cuts to Medicaid. That's a big one in this reconciliation bill. Medicaid is a lifeline across families, and I’m sure I don't need to tell you or other families that... who may or... may be receiving or know people who are receiving services through Medicaid at the school level, but just also across their life span. So the cuts to Medicaid, the proposed cuts that we keep hearing about could be really devastating, but we don't have the specifics yet out of the finance committee. So that's the reconciliation. It's... really what that means is it passed the House budget, now... or House bill, now it's in the Senate, so they have to reconcile those and come to agreement in order to move the bill forward, and they only need a majority vote for a reconciliation, which is different than the appropriation process. That's a 60 vote minimum, so that's much, much harder to do. So the changes to the IDEA formula grant, they're under the appropriations, and that requires an act of Congress with 60 votes or more. The other reconciliation only requires a majority, and given that the... currently there's one party in control of the Senate, the House, and the administration, that's where the danger comes in, where things could move forward. So, again, it's critically important for you to voice your... to raise your voice to your elected officials, because we know that there are some senators who may be overall conservative or maybe in line with some of the policies of the administration but who are very concerned about Medicaid, for example, or... The vouchers is not a direct budget line, it's a tax credit, but it still in the end takes money. $5 billion, I think, is what they're targeting out of the... out of the coffers. Yeah. Well, we've been talking a lot about funding. Obviously really important, and equally troubling as the funding concerns are the discussions, as you mentioned, Denise, surrounding the civil rights of students and individuals with disabilities, so, as you talked about, the Office of Civil Rights or OCR, has been deeply affected by cuts, including the closure of multiple regional offices, as you said. So can you... Is... What do we need to highlight about those cuts and how is that affecting states and families currently? Yeah. So they have, as I said, cut hundreds of employees, of people who were doing investigations and responsible for those. There's probably, I think, anywhere between 15 and 20,000 complaints in the Office for Civil Rights right now, and they cut seven of the field offices as well, so just the... our concern is we... and we don't necessarily... Well, two things I think I want to say there. One is, as I said, we have a current... we have a current court case on that that is pretty much just a waiting period. We don't have an official stay yet, but because... but I think there's a... because of the case out of Massachusetts that will... might affect our case, so we're we're waiting to see how that plays out, but it's just... I don't think... It defies logic to think that cutting the department by two thirds and overloading all of the people who are in... who are obligated with conducting the investigations that that could happen. So, that's one thing. And then also they have... the department has stated in various ways through their actions, but also their executive orders, that they're really not interested in pursuing claims that have anything to do with gender, particularly trans individuals and/or race, so it's very unclear to us exactly what is going on with those types of discrimination claims at this point. One thing we want to say to people is if you're either thinking of filing a claim or you have already, make sure you keep a paper trail. Keep any kind of documentation that's sent to you, keep... if you're asking questions or trying to get a status report, do it by email, do it by writing, or keep your... keep a log of who you... who you spoke to on what date and that kind of thing, because if it does come to needing to challenge whether or not they're fulfilling their obligation under the law., I mean, they’re there. They're supposed to be there to be able to investigate discrimination at the local level and remedy that for families.

And so one big... What our biggest fear and worry is, is that one effective and big piece of the arm is missing in terms of doing that. Now, some people say, “Yeah, well, there was always a delay,” and that's true. I mean, again, we're talking about 20,000 complaints, so it's not like they can complain... they can investigate them in the next week after you filed the complaint. There always... There has been somewhat of a delay, but over the years, past couple of years, Congress has continually appropriated additional staff and additional moneys, and they've been working very hard at reducing those times and coming to... being able to reach closure on those cases. It's very, very scary. So they ostensibly are still investigating, but we're just seeing massive delays or are we seeing...? Well, we just don't... Again, we don't know for sure. We don't have those details, and that's where we're asking... For our membership, I know people are contacting us and letting us know whether they've heard how long it's been. We're still in the process of looking into that, as I know... as I think they are in that other case as well. But you are still recommending that people should file a complaint with OCR if they need to? Well, I mean, that's certainly, like I said, that's one of the dispute resolution options. Certainly there are others, and since I don't know the facts of everyone's cases, the decision about whether to file that or not is really a personal one, probably in consultation with an attorney, because you could... there are other things you could do. State complaints under IDEA, mediation, due process, going to a state court with a claim. There's a lot of different avenues, and so people have to really think about what the... could be... And sometimes if you're doing more than one thing at one time, like for example, if you have an OCR complaint and a due process complaint, they can interact with each other. It can be very complicated, and so we just urge people to investigate, find out, or talk to someone, get some advice at their state level, someone who is familiar with it and may be able to tell them. For example, we were having... my family was having an issue with my grandson who lives in North Carolina, and we were trying to figure out just that very thing. Should we go to OCR? Should we file a lawsuit? So we had to really think through the facts of the case, what it was we were looking for, and in the end, and we talked to other people, advocates, and families, and attorneys around the state and found that the state had been doing a good job with their state complaints and doing them fairly quickly, and that we could potentially get the same resolution from going to due process. Now there's a danger there because if if we lost, then it might impact your due process chances in the future. Luckily we didn't. We won and it was very quick. It was like a month. But that's not the same in every state, so people really have to do their homework. And there's also some active legal cases that can have ripple effects for our community. I... and I know we have sort of breaking news on one, but I want to start with the other first, and then Denise can share the good news, but there's... I first want to talk about Texas versus Kennedy, which revolves around Section 504, and an erosion of rights under 504 could obviously have disastrous effects way beyond education, and so what do we need to know about this case and what's at risk? So, Texas versus Kennedy, and I will say too that COPAA, although we're supportive of the efforts for this and we... The lead really has been the Bazelon Center and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund or DREDF, so if people are looking for more information, I would recommend that they go to one of their websites, but basically, 17 states brought suit in federal court to challenge the updated regulations for Section 504 that came out of HHS, the Health... Department of Health and Human Services and the main thing that they were really upset about was the discussion of gender dysphoria in the preamble, and so they were trying to stop the regulation because of that, but then they also asked the court to strike down all of the regulations and in fact, initially asked that they ruled Section 504 unconstitutional. In April, they had to file joint status reports with the court and they did rescind or walk back that request around finding 504 unconstitutional, but there are also... are some challenges remaining around the integration mandate that came out of Section 504, what we often refer to as the Olmstead Mandate that says people need to receive services in their community, so there's still a challenge to that.

That's a danger, and it's a significant threat. There's also a possible challenge to the ban on disability discrimination when it comes to health care or organ transplants, and also reasonable accommodation and effective communication, so there's a lot of things in this case, and so the... it's in the courts and the next filing is due in July, but in the meantime, anyone who is in one of the 17 states can urge attorney generals to withdraw, and those states, you can look them up, but just off quickly: Texas, Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia. So again, if you want to look that up on dredf.org website, you can do that. We do not... And just to be clear, because I talked about this once before in another setting and somebody thought we were asking people to ask their states to join this lawsuit, not knowing that we are asking people to push their state to withdraw from the lawsuit, to tell the attorney general how important Section 504 is to you, or your family, or a loved one, and the right to live in the community, or to get medical treatment, or to have access to effective communication. So, that's what people can do right now. And do you have any timeline for that, Denise? Just that the next report is due to the courts in July, so I guess we'll see what happens, after that. July 21st, to be exact. Okay. Yeah, it's going to be a busy summer. And another pending case that could definitely have had lasting effects recently concluded oral arguments in the Supreme Court, and that's A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, and Denise, I believe we received a decision this morning, so let us know what we need to know. Yeah. So that's the good news of the day, and that is that we received a unanimous decision in support of the family, and so we're thrilled about that. 9-0, and so we want to congratulate our COPAA member, Amy Goetz, who was the attorney in the case, as well as Roman Martinez, who argued the case from Latham and Watkins in front of the Supreme Court, but basically what was at stake was the burden that families had to prove in terms of whether or not school districts acted inappropriately or what... the standard we were challenging was that they needed to act with bad faith or gross misjudgment to have a disability discrimination claim and that standard was far higher than anyone else had to reach, so this decision says no, nothing... That nothing in the IDEA or any... the ADA, the Rehab Act, or any of those things that protect disabled children's rights should limit or restrict the rights of remedies from other anti-discrimination statutes and that it should be the same standard for everyone. So that's... it's just a huge win, and we really... we had quite a lot of people that participated in writing the... writing amicus briefs in support of the case, and everybody's eyes were on it, and luckily the facts prevailed and justice was served. Amazing. Thank you to everyone who was involved in that case, and we will take all the good news that we can bring in. But I have to ask, so we're getting these legal rulings, but then there have been these executive orders aiming to roll back disparity measures attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, also known as DEI, right, saying that they're discriminatory and so people are rightfully worried that students would now be able to be disciplined and discriminated against based on their disability, or race, or gender, or pronouns, so does this executive order mean that students have less rights in their schools today than they did before this executive order? No. Executive orders cannot change the law. All of the protections of the current laws are still in place. What they do, what those executive orders have done is create that level of chaos, that level of fear, some discord within districts, hurrying to pull some of the curriculums and books and things like that, but the rights of students, including... The federal law leaves what's taught to students to the states, so executive orders really have no bearing on the law, or on the curriculum, and what's taught to students. That's a state level decision, and federal law remains intact. And the federal administration has also said that state funds can be withheld from states that don't comply with their directives, like DEI policies, for example, so does this mean they could withdraw... withhold all federal education funding for an entire state? I don't know what they mean by it. I think that's part of the problem here, is that we've got a lot of things being said without any details. I certainly cannot imagine that that would go unchallenged if that were trying... somebody tried to do that. I mean, let's look... let's talk realistically here. For 50 years, we've had a provision with it in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, where the state's funds can be withheld for failing to... failing compliance with the law. I think we've never had a situation where the funds have actually been withheld, because as soon as any action is taken towards that direction, the groundswell starts happening and people get... are getting upset.

And as we've already seen with the department, announces many things and then walks them back. We heard that Head Start was going to be completely cut, and then three days later, walked it back. “Oh no, no, we won't do that.” So that's the power of our voice and the power of raising that voice to your elected officials, to your school boards, to letting people know that you do not support these efforts and that you don't... if that's the case, or however you feel about them. I don't want to presume that everybody doesn't support them, but at the same time, we can't... we definitely cannot presume that just because an executive order comes out that it now supersedes law because it just does not. And I know you just said this, but we have received a lot of worried... hearing from parents about inclusive practices, and so when this act on diversity, equity, and inclusion, could this affect training, growth, and implementation of inclusive practices for our students? Well, I mean, the law hasn't changed in terms of its presumption and preference for students being educated with their peers without disabilities, but certainly, if the things that we were talking about relating to part D come to fruition and given the number of cuts, I mean, research has been a discretionary funding, and so there's already been a lot of cuts to research and the Institute for Educational Sciences and other areas like that, so that does worry me because we know... For some reason, education seems to continue to, at times, prevail on opinion rather than on research, and the law requires it to be based on research to... peer reviewed research to the extent practicable, and if we don't... if we stop having new research, then that's concerning, and if we stop having personnel prep, that's concerning too. So, yeah. So I think those are reasons to be legitimately worried. And I know we're running out of time, but there's a couple things that I really want to ask because these also are really based around a lot of families’ fears. We're seeing a lot of fear. We were talking before, we're in Los Angeles, and so we're seeing a lot of fears come up for a lot of reason for a lot of families. So first, I just wanted to touch on the so-called autism registry that RFK had proposed, which they're now calling a data platform, but we're hearing from parents who are reluctant to accept an IEP eligibility for autism or the interventions that can support their kids because they're scared or confused as to the implications of what it would mean for their kids to be on this registry, so is our data safe and what do you want to say to these parents? Yeah, I think your skepticism and your concern is valid. There are... my understanding is that they’ve walked back doing a national registry, again, because of the outcry. There are groups... COPAA focuses on all students with disabilities throughout the... so we don't focus on one or the other. There are groups like the... ASAN, autistic self-advocacy network, and some of the other groups that focus on... and they're keeping a close eye on this. We don't know, once again... And that's the... those are the questions to ask. What data are you keeping for what purpose? Because again, if it's for... if they're... If they're taking data, but then ensuring privacy and ensuring that that data is not personally... I can't say the right word... doesn't identify the person... -- There's a word there, but it's not coming. -- and they're going to use it for research, maybe we wouldn't be as concerned. That's one of ASAN’s points, but if we don't know, then we should be concerned. And similar concerns, but around undocumented families. So for families who are scared to be on the government's radar, they may avoid IEPs in order to keep their families safe, and what do you want to say to those families? Yeah, again, I feel your pain. I think that's a real concern in this environment. Right now, the government is required to provide education to students living in this country, and that includes under services and supports under the IDEA, but if you have serious concerns about what's happening, some states are still trying to take action to keep schools as a protected, safe space, but the federal government has changed that, and they are no longer... it is no longer considered a safe space, so it's a legitimate fear, and I think people... my recommendation is to look into... through the National Center for Immigration Law, what options are available to people and what their rights are should they be questioned while they're at school. Right.

And I just... I have two quick questions to end, but IDEA hasn't been reauthorized since 2004 and is widely considered overdue for an update. Is now the right time to revisit and reauthorize IDEA? No, we call it... we could... I mean, the technical term is amending it because IDEA is permanently authorized, so while many would say that it's due for an update, as you said, it's not required to have one, and no, the... we feel like the... and that's one of the reasons we're so upset about the... trying to go do the policy right or through the back door to change the law, change part D of the laws, because now we do not feel is the time to take on... We can hardly pass any kind of legislation through Congress at this point, and our kids’ lives are too important. We don't... we're not messing around with this right now. And so possibly the most important question of the day. With all of these potential changes, where do we need to focus advocacy efforts so we can be as strategic and effective as possible on local, state, and national levels? What do we need to be doing now? Yeah, well, right now the most important thing is to say no to the budget... to the budget reconciliation happening in the Senate, and also to make sure that you convey to your elected officials what's important to you and your family and how vital these services are. They're not a luxury. They're a lifeline. And you are the... the people need... Your elected officials need to hear people's voice. They need to hear why it's important that we're not going back, why it’s important that the funding continues, and raising your voice works. We talked many times today about things being announced and then walked back, so there's still time. There's still a possibility to have an impact, but now's the time to do it. -- Thank you so much, Denise. Unfortunately, we are out of time, but thank you for laying out the most important things that we need to know today. Realizing, like you said, that it could all change tomorrow. The work that COPAA is doing is so invaluable, so thank you for all you do. And as I think we all realize, we're at a critical moment for disability advocacy as Denise has said, because special education is about more than just sitting in a classroom. It should prepare our children for the world and provide the tools to access every piece of it. It should include them in our communities and support them in creating a future of their choice, but that only happens when it's done right and we've never stopped fighting for it to get right, and now it feels like we're fighting just to hold on to what we have. So, like Denise said, we can't let up. Now is the time because every child deserves more than mere survival. So thank you again to Denise, COPAA

--Absolutely, thank you. And all of our partner organizations and all of you for being here today. Our mission is to support you so your children can thrive, and we want you to thrive too. Hope to see you soon.