In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 7.5 million children 3 to 21 years old received services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in AY 2022-23.
About 980,000 of them were autistic, up from 498,000 in 2012-13.
The Trump administration is halving the staff of the Department of Education.
The Trumpist Project 2025 would gut IDEA, wiping out protections for all those students.
During the campaign, Trump tried to deny any connection to Project 2025, but named Project 2025 collaborator Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Watch out when he issues the full Trump budget.
Mark Lieberman at Education Week:
Half a century after the federal government passed a monumental law protecting the rights of students with disabilities, the Trump administration has upended special education on multiple fronts: slashing grant funding; terminating research contracts; decimating federal staffing; and threatening further disruption.
Earlier this month, the latest shock came as the White House proposed merging separate funding streams for special education into a single “consolidated” grant program. Without going into detail, the proposal also emphasized that parents would “remain empowered to direct these funds,” and that the Education Department would withhold funding from “states and districts who flout parental rights.”
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Congress allocated level funding for IDEA in the budget resolution it passed in March for the current fiscal year, which school districts should start receiving July 1.
Beyond that, it remains to be seen how lawmakers will respond to the Trump administration’s proposal for a “Special Education Simplified Funding Program,” in which all the annual dollars Congress allocates for IDEA go out to states in a single bundle.
The White House’s “skinny” budget document—for the federal money schools would receive starting in July 2026—describes the changes as “limiting the federal role in education by reducing the number of programs at ED, the number of staff needed to administer them, and the administrative burden on States so more dollars go to students instead of bureaucrats.”
But some experts see the brief and vaguely worded proposal as an invitation for Congress to let states circumvent IDEA regulations, relax costly oversight of programs for students with disabilities, and direct greater shares of federal funding for parents to spend on private educational options outside the taxpayer-funded public school system.
Condensing IDEA funding streams into a single grant would risk shortchanging services and programs that would get overlooked if not for the federal spotlight, said Myrna Mandlawitz, policy and legislative consultant for the Council of Administrators of Special Education.
Some IDEA grants go to states and schools by way of formulas, while others have a competitive application process. IDEA Part C funds for infants and toddlers with disabilities, meanwhile, typically flow to agencies other than local districts.
