Federal Cuts Threaten Babies and Preschoolers with Disabilities from All Angles

About one in six children in the U.S. have a developmental delay or disability and the number of children receiving special education is rising. Beginning at birth, these children have a right to education and related services to support their healthy development. This guarantee of education relies on several federal mechanisms that the Trump administration and Congress have threatened or already dismantled, with some disability services labeled as “anti-DEIA” efforts. Below are some of the many threats that all three branches of government pose to young children with developmental delays and disabilities.

Threats to Education and Early Intervention

States depend on two interconnected sources of federal funding to uphold the right to education for children with disabilities: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Medicaid. Even combined, IDEA and Medicaid funding do not adequately cover the cost of supporting babies and preschoolers with delays and disabilities. Slashing either of these federal supports would be catastrophic for the education of children with disabilities and deprive them of their civil rights.

Babies receiving early intervention through IDEA Part C and Medicaid funding have healthier developmental outcomes and are less likely to need special education by the time they enter kindergarten, which can save states millions of dollars. Yet both federal funding streams—IDEA and Medicaid—are now at risk. IDEA is vulnerable now that the Trump administration has fired half of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) staff, including special education experts and civil rights lawyers who monitor states’ compliance with special education law. Congress is likely to slash Medicaid by at least $800 billion, affecting more than 37 million students and forcing schools to make impossible choices that will result in children losing services.

Even the very youngest learners, babies born in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), are now at greater risk from federal cuts. NICU infants are already underserved in early intervention (IDEA Part C), even though many are automatically eligible for services, and federal cuts will only worsen their access. Medicaid cuts and loss of federal oversight for IDEA Part C will make it extremely difficult for many families to access essential care for their newborns in the NICU. NICU babies today survive at an earlier age and are less likely to need medical support and early intervention services, thanks to a robust body of specialized research on early detection and intervention. Understanding the nuances of child development and the heterogeneity of disability and improving the educational experiences of these children and their families requires extensive medical and educational research, which the Trump administration has severely cut. Lack of funding for disability research will likely have damaging ripple effects for years to come. By cutting off existing research and preventing new lines of study, we will not have the information we need to better serve children with disabilities today and to anticipate novel harms to child development in the future.

Yet another educational support for children with disabilities is under threat via the judicial branch of government in reaction to a rule that the Biden administration updated: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 guarantees that schools provide accommodations to students with disabilities and other health conditions through “504 plans.” For instance, a preschooler may require a feeding tube to eat at school. Since this disability is not directly related to learning, it would be covered by a 504 plan rather than by IDEA. The 504 plan would require the preschool to ensure the child has access to the feeding tube. Seventeen states have sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), declaring Section 504 unconstitutional and aiming to prevent states from having to uphold 504 protections for students with disabilities. The suit opposes pieces of Section 504 related to including children with disabilities in inclusive learning environments with their nondisabled peers, without which children with disabilities would be segregated from their classmates. The suit also misleadingly opposes the addition of gender dysphoria to an updated Section 504 rule, even though it is only in the rule’s preamble and not in the rule itself.

The Trump administration has targeted a slew of programs that will affect early care and learning, of which young children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable. Dismantling the ED in conjunction with mass layoffs at HHS, combined with proposed federal budget cuts, damage the Preschool Development Grant - Birth Through Five program, the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools program, and other federal programs and funding that can be used in some states for early care and education, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Social Services Block Grant programs.

Threats to Workforce Development

Federal cuts are occurring while long-standing workforce shortages in early intervention and early childhood special education persist, which cause long waitlists for children and families for services such as speech, occupational, and physical therapy. The Trump administration recently eliminated teacher training programs specifically aimed at recruiting special educators, which has led some states to sue the Trump administration over concerns, in part, of the cuts’ effects on special education. Finding early learning programs is already especially difficult for families of young children with disabilities, and cuts to workforce development will only make demand worse.

Threats to Preventing Harmful Discipline

Students with disabilities, including preschoolers, are suspended, expelled, restrained, and secluded at significantly higher rates than their nondisabled peers. Restraint and seclusion has resulted in student abuse and death and school districts are required to report incidents to ED. ED collects data through the Civil Rights Data Collection and the Office of Special Education Programs on disciplinary actions and intervenes when children with disabilities are discriminated against or disproportionately disciplined at school, including in pre-K. Without ED’s data collection, there is no mechanism to monitor states’ disciplinary practices, and without a robust Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within ED, it is not feasible for the federal government to intervene when states do not appropriately prevent and address harmful discipline of children with disabilities. Yet the Trump administration has drastically cut the staff and infrastructure to do so.

For example, an OCR investigation found that a South Carolina school district used restraint 675 times in the 2017-2018 school year, involving 76 students with disabilities (and no students without disabilities) at 20 different schools, for non-threatening behaviors such as disrupting class, walking out of the classroom, or refusing to follow directions. One student was restrained or secluded 143 times in one school year, for a total of 27.5 hours. The district under-reported these incidents to parents and to OCR. OCR conducts many such investigations throughout the U.S. each year and establishes agreements with districts to alter policies and better train staff. OCR can also refer a complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Threats to Families Living in Poverty

Two programs supporting families of children with disabilities living in poverty are on Congress’s chopping block. Proposed federal budget cuts to supplemental security income (SSI) via the U.S. Social Security Administration threaten one million families of children with disabilities living in poverty who rely on these payments for basic needs and disability services. Project 2025, the blueprint for many current executive actions, calls for the elimination of Head Start, which provides educational and developmental services to more than 111,000 young children with disabilities living in poverty. Head Start is a key federal system for identifying children living in poverty with developmental delays and disabilities, providing screening and consultation for families of children who are at risk for developing disabilities (nearly half a million in 2022-2023).

Only 35 years ago this week, disabled people marched from the White House to the U.S. Capitol, where 60 children and adults left their wheelchairs and crutches and crawled up the Capitol steps to demand passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which President George H.W. Bush signed into law four months later. This week, the Trump administration summarily fired civil servants upholding hard-won civil rights for children with disabilities and their families. For young children, weeks and months matter to their developmental trajectory. They cannot wait for the federal dust to settle without being harmed in the process.