NY Education Department is refusing to sign an anti-DEI policy.

New York will not comply with an order from President Donald Trump’s administration to certify that school districts are eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, state Education Department officials said in a Friday letter obtained by Chalkbeat.

The letter represents some of the earliest and most forceful pushback to Thursday’s threat that gave state education agencies 10 days to guarantee that no public schools in their states have DEI programs the Trump administration deems illegal — or lose billions of dollars in federal education funding.

Federal officials cited the 2023 Supreme Court decision banning race-based affirmative action in college admissions in arguing that any school DEI program used to “advantage one’s race over another” violates federal Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

But New York officials countered that the state has already certified on multiple occasions that it follows federal anti-discrimination law, and that the U.S. Education Department has no legal right to threaten to withhold federal funding over its own interpretation of the law.

 https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/04/04/new-york-state-education-department-wont-certify-trump-administration-anti-dei-policy/

Springbrook High teachers raise concerns about principal’s alleged bullying, retaliation

After a group of teachers at Silver Spring’s Springbrook High School raised concerns about Principal Stephanie Valentine allegedly bullying and retaliating against staff, the school will be holding several listening sessions to address the concerns, according to letters from the school’s staff and Valentine.  

One letter dated March 11 was shared with Bethesda Today on March 21. It was written by several Springbrook High staff members and sent to Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) administrators, school board members and others with the aim of bringing “to your attention the very harmful workplace culture at Springbrook High School that has been fostered under the leadership of Principal Stephanie Valentine,” the letter said. “Over time, a pattern of bullying, intimidation and unprofessional behavior has developed, creating a toxic work environment that significantly affects the morale and well-being of the staff.  

In response, Valentine told staff in an email on March 28 shared with Bethesda Today that listening sessions will be held at the school to help develop “action plans to improve school climate and culture.”  

Valentine has served as the principal of Springbrook High since 2022, according to a 2022 school board document. Prior to serving as the principal of Springbrook, Valentine was the principal of Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring from 2021 to 2022, principal intern at Westland Middle School in Bethesda from 2020 to 2021 and as assistant principal of Francis Scot Key Middle School in Silver Spring from 2016 to 2020, according to the board document...

Springbrook High teachers raise concerns about principal’s alleged bullying, retaliation  - Bethesda Magazine

Blunt Rochester Leads 22 Colleagues in Letter to Secretary McMahon Highlighting Impact of Shuttering the Department of Education on Students with Disabilities

 Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, led 22 of her colleagues in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. In their letter, the Senators highlighted the disastrous harm that shuttering the Department of Education will have on millions of students with disabilities and their families. The Senators also ask critical questions, demanding that the Secretary provide specifics about what changes have been made at the Department thus far and provide detailed information about how the Department will continue meeting its statutory responsibilities to ensure students with disabilities are protected and can continue to pursue a public education.  

There are approximately 9.5 million students with disabilities in the United States. The Department administers critical programs to support these students, such as those authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and conducts vital oversight of federal civil rights laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 95 percent of students served under IDEA attend public schools, and these 7.5 million students comprise 15 percent of the public school population. 

“We write with deep concern regarding the Trump administration’s recent actions to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) and the impact this will have on students with disabilities and their families.” the Senators wrote. “Over the years, the Department has developed specific expertise to deliver on the promise that children with disabilities will have equal and fair access to educational opportunity in the United States.” 

“It is essential to recognize the vital role the Department plays in safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities. We are concerned by President Trump’s effort to transfer implementation and oversight of special education to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a move which you indicated you support during your confirmation hearing… The Department of Education is the only agency with an existing institutional infrastructure and a staff of subject matter experts dedicated to ensuring equal educational opportunity for children and students with disabilities,” the Senators continued. “More than this, disabled students deserve to be seen as and treated as the learners and scholars they are. Students with disabilities belong in classrooms alongside their nondisabled peers, and they deserve the accommodations and supports that enable them to thrive.” 

“We are also concerned about the combined efforts from the Department and the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) to slash $900 million in education-related research and over $600 million in educator preparation grants. These cuts will negatively impact critical research into best practices to support students with disabilities who have the shared dream of graduating high school and contributing to our economy… It is critical that students, parents, teachers, and schools have clear and accurate guidance in response to these recent actions to ensure and affirm the right of all students with disabilities to a free and appropriate public education,” the Senators wrote. 

The full letter can be found HERE and below:

Secretary Linda McMahon

U.S. Department of Education

400 Maryland Avenue SW

Washington, D.C. 20202

Dear Secretary McMahon:

We write with deep concern regarding the Trump administration’s recent actions to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) and the impact this will have on students with disabilities and their families. 

Shuttering the Department will cause immense harm to all students, and especially students with disabilities and their families who rely on federal funding for key special education services and support. There are approximately 9.5 million students with disabilities in the United States. The Department administers critical programs to support these students, such as those authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and conducts vital oversight of federal civil rights laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 95 percent of students served under IDEA attend public schools, and these 7.5 million students comprise 15 percent of the public school population. 

Over the years, the Department has developed specific expertise to deliver on the promise that children with disabilities will have equal and fair access to educational opportunity in the United States. Congress has promised to families that students with disabilities will have a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment and has specifically charged the Department of Education with making that promise real in the lives of students with disabilities. It administers programs that support employment outcomes, like the Vocational Rehabilitation Services program which supports jobseekers with disabilities in preparing for and succeeding at work, including for underserved communities such as Native Americans.  Yet, on March 20th, President Trump signed an executive order directing the closure of the Department.  This followed your decision earlier this month to move forward with a reduction in force plan that will critically damage your ability to fulfill your statutory duties to students with disabilities by eliminating nearly half of your workforce.

It is essential to recognize the vital role the Department plays in safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities. We are concerned by President Trump’s effort to transfer implementation and oversight of special education to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a move which you indicated you support during your confirmation hearing. The Department of Education has the statutory authority to implement and enforce IDEA. Without an act of Congress giving authority to HHS, this administration’s attempts to shift IDEA responsibility to HHS will merely prevent the law from being enforced at all. The Senate report from 1979 on the creation of the Department of Education found that the “significant, but carefully restrained Federal role in education…is severely hampered by its burial in [The Department of Health, Education and Welfare]…its confusing lines of authority and administration, its fragmentation, and its obvious lack of direction.”  In other words, the Senate’s findings in 1979 indicate that this department structure was inefficient and resulted in a lack of attention to public education. The Department of Education is the only agency with an existing institutional infrastructure and a staff of subject matter experts dedicated to ensuring equal educational opportunity for children and students with disabilities. More than this, disabled students deserve to be seen as and treated as the learners and scholars they are. Students with disabilities belong in classrooms alongside their nondisabled peers, and they deserve the accommodations and supports that enable them to thrive. Because of the Department of Education’s specific expertise, it is best positioned to do the job well and efficiently. Transferring these authorities to HHS will not only overburden an agency already confronting massive workforce cuts orchestrated by this administration, but it will also stretch HHS beyond its expertise as medical, rather than educational, professionals.

We are alarmed by the potential consequences your proposed reassignment will have on the larger framework of education for students with disabilities. Prior to the passage of IDEA, only one in five children with disabilities were educated in schools, and more than 1.8 million children were systemically excluded from public school in the United States.  Disabilities were seen as medical conditions to be treated and as a result, many children with disabilities were institutionalized rather than educated. We cannot risk regression to an outdated and dehumanizing perspective on disability, which prevented millions of children from accessing the inclusive public education they deserve. Our entire nation benefits when disabled people have equal access to a high-quality education that enables them to use their gifts and talents.

Additionally, the Trump administration instituted a one-month freeze on investigating discrimination complaints, an unprecedented decision even during a presidential transition. The Office for Civil Rights currently faces a backlog of 12,000 investigations, half of which involve students with disabilities. While the freeze was lifted February 20th for disability discrimination claims, we are concerned that the Department will still not have the capacity to process the backlog of 6,000 disability claims, as well as any incoming additional claims—especially considering the unjustified termination of dedicated public servants across the 12 regional divisions of the Office for Civil Rights.

While all disabled students are harmed when supports are taken away and barriers left unchecked, disabled students of color are harmed disproportionately relative to disabled white students and nondisabled students of color. Students of color are misidentified for special education – both improperly identified and improperly excluded from identification, overrepresented in restrictive placements (segregated from their nondisabled peers) and disciplined in school.  Because of cuts to the Office for Civil Rights, as well as undermining the administration of education programs such as Title I that serve low-income students (who are disproportionately of color), disabled students of color stand to suffer the greatest harms of your policy actions. The Department of Education’s irreplaceable role providing guardrails and enforcing laws has allowed progress towards the goal of equal opportunity in education. While the work is unfinished, we must move forward not backwards.

In a speech on March 3rd, you called for the elimination of “unnecessary bureaucracy” at the Department.  Yet, the Department has the smallest staff of any Cabinet-level agency while administering the third-largest discretionary budget. Prior to the recent firings, this number stood at 4,245 employees, including over 700 employees dedicated to addressing the needs of students with disabilities.  More than 1,300 employees have since been fired, in addition to over 500 employees who have opted for separation packages. Indiscriminate firings of workers who are stewards of federal dollars appropriated by Congress with the mandate of ensuring equal access to education for all students does not eliminate “bureaucracy;” it merely impedes the Department’s ability to carry out its work on behalf of children. Indeed, following the recent reduction in force, a coalition of 20 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit arguing the layoffs are so severe the Department “can no longer function, and cannot comply with its statutory requirements.”

We are also concerned about the combined efforts from the Department and the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to slash $900 million in education-related research and over $600 million in educator preparation grants. These cuts will negatively impact critical research into best practices to support students with disabilities who have the shared dream of graduating high school and contributing to our economy.  The cuts also result in the suspension of highly successful programs designed to address the special education teacher shortage which has been consistent over decades and negatively impacts the educational outcomes of students with disabilities. We cannot effectively serve students with disabilities or make informed policy decisions without quality information and highly qualified teachers.

It is critical that students, parents, teachers, and schools have clear and accurate guidance in response to these recent actions to ensure and affirm the right of all students with disabilities to a free and appropriate public education.

We request that you respond to the following questions by no later than April 11, 2025.

1. Please provide a complete list of all terminated grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements that impact students with disabilities.
2. Please provide the guidance developed by the Department and DOGE to determine which grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to cancel.
3. How many Department employees have been affected by the reduction in force who conduct essential functions pertaining to serving students with disabilities?
4. How many employees impacted by the reduction in force are involved in investigating civil rights complaints? Of those employees, how many were investigating disability discrimination cases? 
5. How many employees impacted by the reduction in force are responsible for ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)? How many employees in the Office of the General Counsel who focused on oversight of IDEA were impacted? What provisions have been made to ensure that oversight of that law continues?
6. As of January 20th, 2025, how many Department staff were employed in the Institute of Education Sciences’ National Center for Special Education Research, and how many staff have been impacted by the Department’s Reduction in Force (RIF) announced on March 11th, 2025?
7. Given the recent RIF and media reported cancellations of Institute of Education Sciences’ routine activities, what is the Department’s plan to carry out special education research, including the statutorily required scientific peer-review for research grants awarded by National Center for Special Education Research?
8. What, if any, criteria are the Department of Education using to determine which employees and divisions to cut or eliminate?
9. What is your plan to ensure that all statutory obligations to students with disabilities are properly delivered in light of recent executive actions?
10. Do you commit to the timely investigation of all disability-based discrimination complaints received by the Office for Civil Rights?
11. What evidence do you have that indicates transferring existing programs to other agencies will be more efficient and improve outcomes for students with disabilities?
12. How will the Department continue to monitor compliance with the significant disproportionality requirement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its implementing regulation? How will cuts to OCR, OSERS, and OESE affect the Department’s ability to ensure students are protected from discrimination based on disability and race?

This letter has been endorsed by the following organizations: Access Ready Inc., American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), The Arc of Delaware, The Arc of the United States, Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE), Association of University Centers On Disabilities (AUCD), Autism Society of America, Center for Learner Equity, CommunicationFIRST, Council of Administrators of Special Education, Inc. (CASE), Council for Exceptional Children, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Delaware State Education Association (DSEA), Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC),Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children, Michigan Alliance for Special Education, MomsRising, Muscular Dystrophy Association, National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), National Down Syndrome Society, National Education Association (NEA), New America’s Early & Elementary Education Policy Team, School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA).

###

Blunt Rochester Leads 22 Colleagues in Letter to Secretary McMahon Highlighting Impact of Shuttering the Department of Education on Students with Disabilities - Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester

$7 million payment to substitute among issues in Prince George’s schools audit

A Prince George’s County substitute teacher was paid more than $7 million in 2022 — and two months passed before the school system recouped the funds.

That was the most remarkable finding in a new legislative audit of the county school system, which described a number of ongoing issues with the system’s payroll, procurement and human resources procedures.

The Maryland Department of Legislative Services audit also found that the school system failed to consistently complete a screening process for employees who have contact with children, and that it failed to investigate 9,376 missing items identified in a 2023 inventory, which were valued at about $6.3 million.

School system contracts also came under the microscope, and auditors concluded that the school district’s “procurement policies were not sufficiently comprehensive and were not consistently used when obtaining goods and services.” The school system did not always prepare written justifications, or seek school board approval for expenses, according to the audit.

The audit, dated March 25 and sent to the legislature’s Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee, said the 2022 overpayment for the substitute teacher occurred when a school system employee mistakenly entered the teacher’s identification number in the “hours” field. That led to the teacher being paid for approximately 73,000 work days, rather than three...

$7 million payment to substitute among issues in Prince George's schools audit - Maryland Matters

Investigation casts doubt on whether Baltimore County schools chief is a resident

Myriam Rogers’ contract requires the superintendent to live in Baltimore County

The Baltimore County schools superintendent failed to move to the county by the deadline in her contract, according to Maryland’s inspector general for education, and it’s unclear where she lives now.

A report published Tuesday by the inspector general found that Superintendent Myriam Rogers told the school board she lives in an apartment in Baltimore County. But the inspector general found that she isn’t listed on the lease, and that other public records indicate she maintains a residence in Prince George’s County.

Rogers’ contract “requires that the Superintendent live in Baltimore County, Maryland” and that “she shall maintain continuous residency” there no later than a year into her job.

The inspector general’s investigation found that the school board paid her expenses for a September move, months after her contract required her to become a county resident...

Investigation casts doubt on whether Baltimore County superintendent is a resident - The Baltimore Banner

Breaking: New Superintendent and Board of Education Usher in New Era of Transparency

 April Fools

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Today, the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board issued an official opinion that found the Montgomery County Board of Education violated the Maryland Open Meetings Act during a Closed Session on September 26, 2024, when they discussed the acquisition of diesel school buses for $13.9 million dollars. 

This blog reported on this presumed violation on January 9, 2025, along with other irregularities in the procurement.   

Same old, same old at the Montgomery County Board of Education.  

We will have more on this, including how not only did the Board of Education violate the Open Meetings Act, but how they spent thousands of dollars in outside legal time to defend their violation in multiple responses to the original Complaint I filed on January 9, 2025.  

For now, here is today's Opinion: 

19 OMCB Opinions 070 Montgomery County Board of Education VIOLATED Open Meetings Act by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland on Scribd

Response to OpEd from President of Taxpayers League:

Response from Esther Wells, President of Montgomery County Taxpayers League to March 29, 2025, OpEd on Bethesda Today. 

~~~

This OpEd is disingenuous. “The County Council now needs to decide: Does it invest in education or not?” 

Taxpayers have consistently funded MCPS far above the required levels. So,that’s not the right question to ask. 

The real question is what accountability will MCPS provide Students & Taxpayers in the form of academic ROI [Return on Investment] if we fund MCPS over $250M higher than required to per State law? 

Test scores are stagnant/declining, public safety in our schools are at unacceptable levels, MCPS struggles to ensure every classroom has a teacher in it daily, $168M funds wasted with EV buses that don’t work, multi-million dollar school bus tracking app that can’t protect student data, so that gets canned. 

Millions spent annually in legal fees, embezzlement of funds in transportation dept, the list goes on. 

Let’s balance the conversation and stop making it seem like Taxpayers have not prioritized funding to our schools, we have. 

What we’ve lacked is accountability of the investment. 

Can someone please provide a SMART goal on what the ROI will be to fully fund MCPS in FY2026? Thanks

Esther L. Wells on X: "@bethesda_today This OpEd is disingenuous. “The County Council now needs to decide: Does it invest in education or not?” Taxpayers have consistently funded MCPS far above the required levels. So,that’s not the right question to ask. The real question is what accountability will MCPS provide https://t.co/XY63Y5esTf" / X

Advocacy Site for Parents & Guardians: SAY NO to drug & Alcohol Rehab Center Next to Greenwood Elementary School

 

Community Meeting

Many questions remain after the community meeting held on March 24 at Greenwood Elementary. Councilmember Luedtke promises that answers to follow-up questions will be responded to by email. If you attended the meeting in person or virtually, you should receive an update from the Councilmember's office.

If you were not able to attend, the recording is available: Zoom Recording from GW Community Meeting

More on this issue impacting MCPS' Greenwood Elementary School in Brookeville, MD.

NO to Drug & Alcohol Rehabilitation Center Next to Greenwood Elementary School

Maryland residents outraged over drug rehab facility near Montgomery Co. school

Tensions ran high Monday night as Montgomery County, Maryland, residents gathered at Greenwood Elementary School to voice concerns over a drug rehabilitation facility set to open near the school.

The meeting, hosted by Montgomery County Council member Dawn Luedtke, aimed to address residents’ questions about zoning laws, facility regulations, and community impact.

00:08

00:54

The planned facility, to be operated by The Freedom Center, will be a Level 3.5 residential substance use disorder treatment center. It will house up to 16 residents across two properties on Gold Mine Place, just feet away from the elementary school.

Community members have expressed frustration over a lack of communication from the facility’s operators, as well as concerns about potential safety risks for children. Many parents in attendance raised objections to the facility’s proximity to the school, emphasizing the need for students to feel secure during recess and outdoor activities...

Maryland residents outraged over drug rehab facility near Montgomery Co. school - WTOP News