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).

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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

Coalition Sues Trump Administration For Dismantling Department of Education, Hurting All Students

Advocacy organizations representing millions of educators, civil rights champions, school employees, students, and families will file a lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump Administration’s illegal attempts to dismantle the United States Department of Education. The plaintiffs include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), public school parents, The National Education Association (NEA), and AFSCME Maryland Council 3, and they are supported by Student Defense and Education Law Center (ELC).

Washington, D.C. — Advocacy organizations representing millions of educators, civil rights champions, school employees, students, and families will file a lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump Administration’s illegal attempts to dismantle the United States Department of Education. The plaintiffs include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), public school parents, The National Education Association (NEA), and AFSCME Maryland Council 3, and they are supported by Student Defense and Education Law Center (ELC).

Since taking office, Trump Administration officials have taken an escalating series of steps to dismantle the Department, including a series of staff reductions and the termination of $1.5 billion in current contracts and grants for Congressionally-authorized programs and activities. On March 11, the Secretary instituted a Department-wide reduction in force, which, when combined with prior staff reductions, slashes the already lean Department workforce in half.  

Most recently, on March 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order formally instructing Secretary Linda McMahon to pursue "all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States." The very next day, President Trump indicated that the administration would move the higher education student loan portfolio to the Small Business Administration and disability-related programs to the Department of Health and Human Services.  

“Taken together, Defendants’ steps since January 20, 2025, constitute a de facto dismantling of the Department by executive fiat…,” the complaint argues. “But the Constitution gives power over ‘the establishment of offices [and] the determination of their functions and jurisdiction’ to Congress—not to the President or any officer working under him.” Because it is a Congressionally-created federal agency, legally eliminating the Department of Education, or its constituent offices, or transferring them to other federal agencies, requires Congressional approval. 

While state and local governments are responsible for the vast majority of America’s public education system, Congress created the Department to help bridge longstanding gaps in educational opportunity and provide critical funding and supports to students. The Department fulfills that role by enforcing civil rights laws, supporting students with disabilities, promoting equal educational opportunities, bolstering the educator workforce, and administering the Federal Student Aid programs that place college within reach of working Americans. 

Eliminating or effectively shuttering the Department puts at risk the millions of vulnerable students, including those from low-income families, English learners, homeless students, rural students, and others who depend on Department support. It also jeopardizes more than 400,000 educator jobs; makes it impossible for the Department to ensure that federal education funding actually is spent as Congress intended; threatens support for 7.5 million students with disabilities; and leaves millions of students vulnerable to discrimination. It could also reduce access to Pell Grants, upend repayments for student loan borrowers, and invite fraudulent and predatory behavior from unscrupulous institutions of higher education.

The lawsuit alleges that actions to dismantle the Department exceed the constitutional authority of the executive branch and violate the federal Administrative Procedure Act. It asks the court to immediately halt the government’s attempt to dismantle the Department.

“As a parent of a child with disabilities who has an Individual Education Program (IEP), I am deeply troubled by the severe cuts the Trump Administration has made to the Department of Education,” said Mara Greengrass, a Maryland mother who is a plaintiff in the litigation. “Funding for special education and the Department’s oversight have been crucial in ensuring my son receives the quality education he—and every child in this country—deserves.”

“Nothing is more important than the success of students. America’s educators and parents won’t be silent as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Linda McMahon try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Gutting the Department of Education will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training programs, making higher education more out of reach, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections. Parents, educators, and community leaders know this will widen the gaps in education, which is why we will do everything in our power to protect our students and their futures,” said National Education Association President Becky Pringle.

"Education is power. By firing half of the workforce at the Department of Education, Trump is not only seeking to dismantle an agency — he is deliberately destroying the pathway many Americans have to a better life," said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “The forceful elimination of thousands of essential workers will harm the most vulnerable in our communities. The NAACP and our partners are equipped with the necessary legal measures to prevent this unlawful attack on our children’s future.”

"Congress created the Department of Education, and Congress controls its future — not billionaires Marylanders never voted for," said AFSCME Council 3 President Patrick Moran. "This illegal move to bypass our elected representatives would be devastating to our state’s public schools. Department of Education funding supports AFSCME Council 3 members in their essential work every day. It helps bus drivers get students in rural areas to school on time, ensures cafeteria workers can deliver consistent meals to students in low-income areas, keeps custodial workers on staff to ensure public schools are safe environments, supports disability and English as a second language school services, and more. Without this funding, we lose essential school workers — and our most vulnerable students will pay the price."

“The Trump Administration’s effort to dismantle the Department of Education is not only illegal; it inflicts great harm on students, schools, and communities across the country,” said Robert Kim, Education Law Center Executive Director. “The Administration’s assertion that critical federal funding and support for schools and students will somehow continue as normal even after shuttering the Department reveals a dangerous lack of understanding of the Department’s role to provide funding for and implement programs for our most underserved student populations, ensure equal access and opportunity, and enforce civil rights in our nation’s schools. We cannot afford to let the Trump Administration throw our public schools into chaos.”

“Donald Trump’s own Secretary of Education has acknowledged they can’t legally shut down the Department of Education without Congress,” said Student Defense President Aaron Ament. “Yet that is, for all intents and purposes, exactly what they are doing. It’s a brazen violation of the law that will upend the lives of countless students and families.”

# # #

https://www.nea.org/about-nea/media-center/press-releases/coalition-sues-trump-administration-dismantling-department-education-hurting-all-students

The Education Department is retreating from some of the most incendiary suggestions

The Education Department is retreating from some of the most incendiary suggestions it made last month in a sweeping directive threatening to pull federal funding from any college or K-12 school district that considers race in hiring, programming, scholarships and virtually every other aspect of student and campus life.

A new question-and-answer document, posted online late Friday, clearly states that by law the federal government cannot dictate curriculum. It also notes that cultural celebrations and events celebrating Black History Month are legally permitted as long as they are open to people of all races.

It also narrows the definition of which types of diversity, equity and inclusion programs might draw scrutiny. The new directive adheres more closely to traditional court doctrines and interpretation of civil rights law, experts said Saturday.

“I see it as a significant retrenchment back towards more established case law,” said Ray Li, an attorney who worked on these issues in the Office for Civil Rights during the Biden administration. “It reads as if written by someone different.”

“A lot of the most unsupported claims made” in the original letter, he said, “have been walked back.”..

Education Dept. softens controversial guidance on race and schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 6, 2022 Contact: Press Office (202) 401-1576 or press@ed.gov

U.S. Department of Education Announces Intent to Strengthen and Protect Rights for Students with Disabilities by Amending Regulations Implementing Section 504 Forty-five years after publication of the regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the landmark disability civil rights law, the U.S. Department of Education announced plans to gather public input on possible amendments to those regulations in order to strengthen and protect the rights of students with disabilities. Section 504 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public and private programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance, including schools and postsecondary institutions. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights will solicit public comments to help decide how best to improve current regulations to assist America’s students with disabilities. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and, as part of the President’s Unity Agenda, President Biden announced a strategy to address our nation’s mental health crisis. The work that OCR will do this month to listen to and solicit public input regarding improvements to the Department’s disability rights regulations will include input from those people with disabilities who also have mental health needs and their advocates. “While the world has undergone enormous changes since 1977, the Department’s Section 504 regulations have remained, with few exceptions, unaltered,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. “As we observe the 45th anniversary of these important regulations this month, it is time to start the process of updating them. Just as in 1977, the voices of people with disabilities must be heard and incorporated as we engage in that work.” In April 1977, hundreds of people with disabilities and their supporters held protests at several of the regional offices of the Department of Education’s predecessor agency demanding that the agency approve the long-delayed non-discrimination regulations implementing Section 504 to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities. The protest in the Department’s San Francisco office lasted nearly a month, until the Secretary signed the regulations without change on April 28, 1977.  They were formally published on May 9, 1977. The Department’s Section 504 regulations were the first issued by the federal government that addressed the treatment of people with disabilities through a civil rights framework, rather than through solely a medical or vocational framework. In the years that followed, these regulations served as a model for the regulations of other federal agencies and were the foundation for many of the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. For more than four decades, OCR has worked to eliminate disability discrimination in schools—including public pre-K through high schools, as well as postsecondary schools—by investigating complaints alleging violations of the regulations, conducting proactive investigations, issuing policy guidance, and providing technical assistance. On April 28, the Department announced a resolution agreement with the second-largest school district in the country, Los Angeles Unified School District, requiring it to take steps necessary to ensure that students with disabilities receive educational services, including compensatory services, during and resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the development of the proposed amendments to the Section 504 regulations, the Department is soliciting public input. Interested parties may go to www.ed.gov/policy/rights/reg/ocr/ to submit comments. The Department will also hold listening sessions in the coming months. Any comments received may be made available to the public, so commenters should avoid including any personal information that they want to keep confidential.  In addition, the Department intends to rely on prior feedback received in response to an earlier Request for Information regarding the nondiscriminatory administration of school discipline, and other information, to decide what changes would be most appropriate to include in a notice of proposed rulemaking. The Department and OCR are committed to fulfilling Congress’ promises in Section 504 and to advancing progress in partnership with people with disabilities and the full educational community. ### https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USED/bulletins/3168169

Our laws cannot allow public schools to shield sexual predators

The Biden administration recently announced its new proposed Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), providing numerous revisions to the most authoritative repository of information on civil rights in public schools. Predictably, the Biden proposal seeks new data on coronavirus responses and LGBTQ issues, including the addition of a nonbinary sex category. Commendably, the new version retains expanded provisions on religious harassment that we had added last year when we headed the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). 

Shockingly, however, the Biden proposal eliminates some of the most important provisions that we had added, particularly, new questions regarding practices that shield sexual predators from public scrutiny...

...The most concerning issue — and the one that is stripped from the Biden version of our collection — are the new questions we added to get information on “pass the trash” trends in schools. “Pass the trash” is the name for the practice whereby a school employee who engages in sexual misconduct with a student is “passed” from one district to another. In these situations, the teacher accused of sexual misconduct resigns before he or she is terminated, or even prior to the conclusion of an investigation. The sexual predator obtains employment in a new district where they prey on new student-victims. Because the investigation ends with the teacher’s resignation, there is no formal finding of wrongdoing to share with victims or with subsequent employers. In other situations, sexual predators are reassigned to other positions or schools within the same district.  It is commonly used by administrators who wish to pacify angry parents by moving an alleged perpetrator to a different location in which families are unaware of his background. 

This practice was infamously used recently in Loudoun County, Va., where a student accused of raping a girl in a bathroom was moved to a different school. The superintendent denied that the case had happened and the victim’s father was arrested after trying to disclose the matter at a school board meeting. The case exploded into public attention, possibly influencing Virginia’s recent statewide election when the perpetrator was later arrested for assaulting a different girl at his new school, and evidence emerged suggesting a cover-up by school administrators...

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/584461-our-laws-cannot-allow-public-schools-to-shield-sexual-predators

May a school disclose the number of students who have COVID-19 to parents and students in the school community without prior written consent? YES

 

May Schools Disclose Information about Cases of COVID-19?

• September 24, 2020
•  News

By: Kevin Herms, Director of the Student Privacy Policy Office

Do federal privacy laws allow schools to disclose information about cases of COVID-19? The Student Privacy Policy Office at the U.S. Department of Education provided guidance on that subject in March 2020. Today, we are reminding schools of this guidance and answering four of the most common questions that schools may face regarding privacy and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schools across the nation are working hard to keep students, teachers, and staff safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many schools are wondering whether the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) allows them to disclose information about cases of COVID-19 to the community. The Student Privacy Policy Office provided answers to these questions in our March 2020 guidance. Subsequent to issuing the guidance, we have seen reports that states, cities, school districts, and schools are continuing to face questions about disclosing COVID-19 cases. Today, we are answering four of the most common questions...

https://blog.ed.gov/2020/09/may-schools-disclose-information-cases-covid-19/

U.S. Education Department investigates Laramie Co. schools

CHEYENNE — Laramie County's largest school district is still being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education a little less than two years after a student filed a complaint accusing the district of discrimination against African-American and disabled students.

In a letter addressed to former LCSD1 Superintendent John Lyttle and dated Dec. 7, 2017, department officials wrote the parties had reached a settlement and would close investigations into whether the district discriminated against the student for his disability and on the basis of sex and race.

But the department is still exploring whether the district "systemically" discriminates against African-American and disabled students, according to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights' website...

https://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/wyoming/article_d83358b4-e621-5969-bec2-7a4fa1aec233.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

MCPS Mom Files Complaint with US Dept of Ed, Gets Transportation for Child to Magnet School

A Kensington boy is being bused to school after his mother filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education saying Montgomery County Public Schools discriminated against her son when the system did not provide him transportation to a magnet program...
...“I worked smarter because I know that federal government provides funds to schools, and you are supposed to be following federal law to get those funds,” she said. “I took it a different route.”
In response to Diaz-Cooper’s complaint, the county school system decided to enter into a resolution agreement, according to a May 28 letter to Diaz-Cooper from an education department attorney...

http://www.gazette.net/article/20140910/NEWS/140919803/1070/kensington-boy-bused-to-school-after-complaint-with-federal-office&template=gazette

Arnie Duncan: We Must Provide Equal Opportunity in Sports to Students with Disabilities

From U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan, Jan 25, 2013.  To read and post comments, go here.  ED's Guidance is here.

Playing sports at any level—club, intramural, or interscholastic—can be a key part of the school experience and have an immense and lasting impact on a student’s life. Among its many benefits, participation in extracurricular athletic activities promotes socialization, the development of leadership skills, focus, and, of course, physical fitness. It’s no secret that sports helped to shape my life. From a very early age, playing basketball taught me valuable lessons about grit, discipline, and teamwork that are still with me to this day.

Students with disabilities are no different – like their peers without disabilities, these students benefit from participating in sports. But unfortunately, we know that students with disabilities are all too often denied the chance to participate and with it, the respect that comes with inclusion. This is simply wrong. While it’s the coach’s job to pick the best team, students with disabilities must be judged based on their individual abilities, and not excluded because of generalizations, assumptions, prejudices, or stereotypes.  Knowledgeable adults create the possibilities of participation among children and youth both with and without disabilities.

Today, ED’s Office for Civil Rights has released guidance that clarifies existing legal obligations of schools to provide students with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate alongside their peers in after-school athletics and clubs. We make clear that schools may not exclude students who have an intellectual, developmental, physical, or any other disability from trying out and playing on a team, if they are otherwise qualified. This guidance builds on a resource document the Department issued in 2011 that provides important information on improving opportunities for children and youth with disabilities to access PE and athletics.

Federal civil rights laws require schools to provide equal opportunities, not give anyone an unfair head start. So schools don’t have to change the essential rules of the game, and they don’t have to do anything that would provide a student with a disability an unfair competitive advantage. But they do need to make reasonable modifications (such as using a laser instead of a starter pistol to start a race so a deaf runner can compete) to ensure that students with disabilities get the very same opportunity to play as everyone else. The guidance issued today will help schools meet this obligation and will allow increasing numbers of kids with disabilities the chance to benefit from playing sports.

Arne Duncan is U.S. Secretary of Education