The federal government is planning on moving the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services from the U.S. Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice.
What does this mean for people like my clients? Oversight of special education functions and students’ civil rights will be separated between the two bodies. Settled laws will be upended or ignored. These changes have the power to push the progress made in special education and disability rights backwards and make it more difficult to fight discrimination. It will have a real life, real world negative impact on the lives of students and their families.
Simply put? It threatens your student’s right to a free and appropriate education. It will create more barriers for those with disabilities to access basic human rights.
If this resonates with you, reach out to your representatives:
- Learn who your representatives are
- Read more about these changes
- The agreements between each agency involved:
