Cutting the U.S. Department of Education Harms Millions of Students with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) plays a key role in protecting and supporting students with disabilities. Prior to the establishment of ED, only one in five children with disabilities in the U.S. attended school. Today, ED holds states accountable for providing education to all students with disabilities. The Trump administration has made clear its plans to dismantle ED, which would undo decades of progress supporting and protecting students with disabilities and their families.

More than 15 percent of U.S. students receive special education and related services, and that number continues to rise. Most of these students have learning disabilities such as dyslexia, speech and language disorders (such as stuttering), and other health impairments such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This also includes nearly half a million infants and toddlers who have or are at risk of having delays and disabilities. Without ED holding states accountable to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the quality of education a child with a disability received would vary dramatically from one state to the next, and from their peers without disabilities. The civil rights of students with disabilities would be far more vulnerable, including parents' rights to fair education processes.

The critical federal role in four key areas of special education are at risk if the Trump administration dismantles ED: administering federal funding fairly; identifying civil rights violations; providing funding and guidance for improving special education; and ensuring nationwide consistency.

ED administers billions of federal dollars to states (about $15 billion in 2024) and ensures states use it correctly to support students with disabilities. ED holds states accountable for providing special education according to IDEA in order to receive these federal funds. States vary in terms of how much money they allocate to serving students with disabilities, which results in highly variable total per-pupil special education expenditures across states. For instance, in 2020 Connecticut spent an average total of $24,443 per student with disability while Mississippi spent $5,265 per student with disability. States rely on federal dollars to increase their special education capacity. A key role of ED is to ensure that states use this money accurately and to verify that funding gets to the students who are eligible for special education.

The Trump administration has hinted at making two major changes to special education funding that would remove checks on student and family rights. First, the administration suggests rerouting IDEA funding directly to parents and private schools via education savings accounts and private school vouchers. Students placed in private schools by their parents do not have the full IDEA rights to which they would be entitled if they were enrolled in a public school. Second, the administration suggests sending IDEA funds directly to school districts with no conditions attached (i.e., block-granting the funds). This would circumvent ED’s monitoring so that the public could not know whether these dollars were used appropriately to protect and support students with disabilities.

ED monitors and protects the civil rights of students with disabilities and their families. ED reports annually to Congress on how much progress the U.S. has made toward providing students with special education and providing babies and their families with early intervention services in accordance with IDEA. This public data is essential to holding states accountable for upholding the civil rights of students and families. ED collects data from states about how many students with disabilities each state is serving, which students are underserved or overidentified, and how well states are providing special education. For instance, data has shown that young Asian, Black, and Latino children are less likely to receive special education and early intervention services than their white peers. ED analyzes this data to determine which states need support to better serve students with disabilities and to spotlight which states are improving and innovating so that other states can learn about promising practices.

Students with disabilities—even preschoolers—are suspended and expelled at far higher rates than their peers, often in violation of IDEA. Among students with disabilities, Black students with disabilities are disciplined at especially high rates. Moreover, IDEA guarantees that students with disabilities are taught in the least restrictive environment, but American Indian, Latino, and Black students with disabilities are less likely to get to learn alongside their nondisabled peers, compared to white students with disabilities. ED monitors the disciplinary rates of students with disabilities and how much schools include students with disabilities in general education settings. They collect data in such a way that the public can compare states and look at differences among student subgroups. This data collection and monitoring allows ED and other interested parties to intervene when schools violate civil rights and cause students with disabilities harm.

ED provides funding and guidance for key programs. These include programs that address persistent special educator workforce shortages and research to improve special education. ED also administers funding for nationwide training and information centers that give parents and students information about their rights. ED’s guidance is grounded in research and expertise in teaching students with disabilities, fostering a nurturing learning environment, and evaluating student progress. The Trump administration has proposed moving IDEA to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), but assessment, evaluation, intervention, and workforce preparation in special education is distinctly different than that of health and human services fields. Furthermore, the institutional knowledge of special education experts at ED would be lost in such a move and would put the civil rights of students and families at risk of falling through the cracks.

ED helps special education be more consistent across the U.S. States have the freedom to interpret IDEA in their own ways and pass their own special education laws (as outlined in this chart), resulting in a variety of special education rules from one state to the next. A child’s access to high-quality special education varies widely by where they live. For instance, the same child could be found eligible for special education in one state but not in another since each state can define disability in its own way. States with lower median incomes serve fewer young children with disabilities. ED provides optional guidance to states on interpreting IDEA regulations so that states can serve more students and special education quality can be more consistent from one state to the next. ED does not dictate which curricula states have to use, but ED does ensure that those curricula are modified to accommodate the learning styles of students with disabilities.

ED helps protect people with disabilities from birth into young adulthood. The agency administers funding to help states find all infants and toddlers who may have disabilities or delays and connect them to early intervention services; and funding to help states prepare older students with disabilities to transition to college or the workforce. ED’s administration of integral IDEA funds is the strongest mechanism that the federal government has to compel states to uphold civil rights for students with disabilities and their families. Already, the Trump administration has weakened the federal government’s ability to serve students with disabilities by firing special education specialists at ED, and further cuts are expected.

For more on New America’s growing collection of posts and statements on defending the Department of Education, see here.