President Donald Trump is addressing his Secretary of Education that advances with the dismantling of the United States Department of Education, a step that defenders say it would have serious implications for students with disabilities.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that asked the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to take «all the necessary measures to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and the authority of return education to the States.» She must do it while «guarantees the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits in which Americans trust,» says the order.
«If you observe Pell subsidies, it is supposed to be a very good program and funds and resources of Title I for children with special disabilities and special needs, they will be preserved in their entirety and other agencies and departments are redistributed that will take care of them very well,» Trump said before signing the executive order. «But beyond these basic needs, my administration will take all legal measures to close the department.»
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The Department of Education was established by Congress and federal legislators would need to act to close the agency, but the administration is moving quickly to weaken it.
The order comes just over a week after the Department of Education said it was reducing its workforce almost halfway in what McMahon described as a «first step» to close the agency. A significant number of layoffs went to the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education, which caused important concerns about how the federal government will ensure that schools maintain disability rights and limit the resource for students.
The defenders have warned that closing the Department of Education could have a huge impact on the 7.5 million special education students of the Nation. The agency distributes billions in funds to the states every year and supervises everything, from early intervention for young children with disabilities to vocational rehabilitation, in addition to ensuring that the civil rights of students with disabilities are protected.
“If the secretary moves forward to try to scatp Assistance/Training and Data Collection and Transparency in Outcomes for Children No Longer Exist, ”Said Denise S. Marshall, Ceo of the Council of parentorneys and advocates, or Copaa, for non -profit purposes that advocates the rights of students with disabilities and their families. «There are many ways to change a structure, but the only way that can be successful is through careful planning. No evidence of that has been presented.»
McMahon has suggested that the supervision of people with the Disabilities Education Law is transferred to the Department of Human Health and Services and the Department of Civil Rights of the Department of Education to the Department of Justice. However, the Secretary of Education could not say what idea it represents and did not have the details when asked who would enforce the Special Education Law if the department is abolished.
«The dismantling of the United States Department of Education is more than a policy change: it will reverse five decades of progress for students with disabilities,» said Katy Neas, CEO of the United States ARC and former deputy secretary attached to the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services of the Department of Education. «Although the right to free public education for children with disabilities will remain under the Federal Law of Information Education with Disabilities, states will have difficulty fulfilling their promise without federal technical assistance, supervision and application.»
Multiple demands against the agency have been filed on the massive shots last week and the executive order is expected to be challenged in the Court as well.
