The Future of Special Education Complaints

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities.

Lauren Wagner & Beth Hawkins at The 74:

The law that created the state complaint processes, the IDEA, guarantees disabled students’ educational rights. By contrast, the ADA, passed in 1990, outlaws discrimination against people who need accommodations to access public facilities and programs — including schools.

Families of children denied special education services can assert their rights under either law. When states fail to enforce a student’s educational rights under IDEA, families often file a discrimination complaint via the ADA.

In the 2022-23 school year, more than 54,000 state dispute resolution requests were filed in the U.S. and its territories, including due process complaints, written state complaints and mediation requests. The Office for Civil Rights had about 12,000 open cases — half of them involving disability discrimination — when its staff was slashed in March. For fiscal year 2026, which started July 1, the White House’s proposed OCR budget is $91 million, a 35% drop.

At the same time, the administration wants to move $33 million that currently funds state advocacy clearinghouses into block grants that states — cash-strapped as their federal pandemic funds run out — can use for other things. This means families risk losing a second source of leverage: free assistance from experts.

If enacted, both budget cuts would also exacerbate socioeconomic and racial disparities in the services kids with disabilities receive, says Carrie Gillispie, a senior policy analyst at New America. This is because families in states where there’s little appetite for local enforcement depend on OCR to investigate discrimination.

“Those discrepancies that exist will only worsen if these budget changes happen,” Gillispie says. “It’s a choice to continue to underinvest.”

With the federal office a hollow shell of what it was six months ago, advocates say, families are likely to rely more heavily on their states. And how — and how well — each state helps students with disabilities varies widely.

 

1333

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's Secretary of HHS. 

From CDC:

As of July 29, 2025, a total of 1,333 confirmed* measles cases were reported by 40 jurisdictions: Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.

There have been 29 outbreaks** reported in 2025, and 87% of confirmed cases (1,156 of 1,333) are outbreak-associated. For comparison, 16 outbreaks were reported during 2024 and 69% of cases (198 of 285) were outbreak-associated.

*CDC is aware of probable measles cases being reported by jurisdictions. However, the data on this page only includes confirmed cases.

**CDC reports the cumulative number of measles outbreaks (defined as 3 or more related cases) that have occurred this year in the U.S.; states have the most up-to-date information about cases and outbreaks in their jurisdictions

RFK Jr. v. NVIC

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's Secretary of HHS. 

Sareen Habeshian at Axios:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took aim Monday at vaccine makers' federal liability protections.

The big picture: Kennedy, who has repeatedly pushed the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism and in the past was involved in litigation over patient injury claims, has argued in the past that the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) takes away manufacturers' incentive to make vaccines safe.

Zoom in: Kennedy is proposing an overhaul to the VICP, which was established by law in 1986 in response to the threat of vaccine lawsuits leading to shortages.

...

 Between the lines: Weakening or removing liability protections for certain vaccines could be the thing that makes manufacturers contemplate leaving the market, experts say — or at least causes them to significantly raise prices, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.

Christina Jewett at NYT:

Mr. Kennedy could use the effort as a platform to further erode trust in vaccines, said Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied the program.

“It’s setting them up for changes that will make the program compensate cases out of hand without actually evaluating the cases, including cases that are almost certainly false,” she said.

Mr. Kennedy and his close allies have pressed cases in the compensation court and in other courts for years, including a trial in 2022 in which Mr. Kennedy gave a closing argument. The case sought to hold a doctor liable for causing autism by vaccinating a boy. The jury sided with the doctor.

 

Most States Fail to Meet IDEA Requirements

 In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

 In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

From the US Department of Education:

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) issued its 2025 determinations for States on their implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for Part B and Part C. The IDEA requires the Department to issue an annual determination, based on the State Performance Plan (SPP) and Annual Performance Report (APR), which evaluates the State’s efforts to implement the requirements and purposes of the IDEA, and describes how the State will improve its implementation. The Part B SPP/APR and Part C SPP/APR include indicators that measure child and family results, and other indicators that measure compliance with the requirements of the IDEA. Since 2015, the Part B SPP/APR and Part C SPP/APR have included a State Systemic Improvement Plan through which each State focuses its efforts on improving a State-selected child or family outcome.  

...

Following is a list of each State’s performance in meeting the requirements of IDEA Part B, which serves students with disabilities, ages 3 through 21:  

MEETS REQUIREMENTS  Connecticut  Illinois  Indiana  Kansas  Kentucky  Massachusetts  Maryland  Minnesota  Missouri  North Dakota  Nebraska  New Hampshire  New Jersey  Ohio  Pennsylvania    Republic of the Marshall Islands  Texas  Virginia  Wisconsin  Wyoming 

NEEDS ASSISTANCE (one year) Alabama Florida Georgia Washington 

NEEDS ASSISTANCE (two or more consecutive years)  Alaska  Arkansas  American Samoa  Arizona  California  Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands  Colorado  Delaware  Federated States of Micronesia Guam Hawaii Iowa  Idaho  Louisiana  Maine  Michigan  Mississippi  Montana  North Carolina  New Mexico  New York Nevada Oklahoma Oregon  Republic of Palau  Rhode Island Puerto Rico  South Carolina  South Dakota  Tennessee  Utah  Virgin Islands  Vermont  West Virginia 

NEEDS INTERVENTION Bureau of Indian Education District of Columbia 

MAHA: Marketing Anti-Science Harms America

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's Secretary of HHS. 

Andrew Gumbel at The Observer:

Kennedy’s anti-science, slash-and-burn approach is particularly frustrating to autism campaigners, who had hoped he was sincere about answering the question of what causes the condition – answers that might go a long way towards steering many parents and adult sufferers away from conspiracy theories.

But what those advocates have seen is a gutting of research funds. Instead of deepening work into genetic causes of autism, Kennedy has indulged his obsession with one thing scientists are now quite confident does not cause autism: childhood vaccination.

“[Kennedy] acts as if there’s a single environmental toxin that nobody who has been studying autism for the past 25 years has been able to find,” said Alison Singer of the Autism Science Foundation. “We are in fact making really good progress in finding the causes of autism, and yet the administration that says it wants to find the causes is decimating the scientific infrastructure of university-based research.”

Discouraging the vaccination of pregnant women was counterproductive, Singer argued, because research indicates that rubella, flu or Covid during pregnancy could be aggravating factors for autism. Proposing a registry of Americans with autism without explaining its purpose, as Kennedy’s department did in April, risked alarming people and deterring parents from seeking help for their autistic children, she added.

“RFK Jr is a data denier,” Singer argued. “There’s this hypothesis he’s had for 20 years that vaccines cause autism and he disregards anything that contradicts it. You can’t be so entrenched in your own beliefs that you can’t see the data in front of you.”

In going against that data, Kennedy has also politicised the country’s public health – a process Trump himself began during the Covid pandemic by floating untested remedies like injecting disinfectant or “hit[ting] the body with … very powerful light” and conflating medical expertise with the elitism of what he calls the “radical left”.

Now Kennedy is justifying many of his most radical policy shifts as a response to “waste, administrative bloat and duplication” created by the Democrats under President Biden – the implication being that attacking the experts and attacking Democrats amount to the same thing.

ADA 35

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities.

On this day in 1990, George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act:

 Barbara Merrill and Tony Coelho at TIME:

Yet, as we celebrate the ADA's enduring legacy this year, the future for people with disabilities looks less certain. The ADA’s vision is not self-sustaining. Its promise is fulfilled through an ecosystem of vital support services, many of which rely on Medicaid funding. For millions of Americans living with disabilities, Medicaid is a lifeline that provides access to essential home- and community-based services (HCBS). These services include the most basic activities of daily living like bathing, dressing, eating, and more, as well as the residential programs, employment supports, and assistive technologies that allow people with I/DD to live with dignity in their own homes and communities. These services are at the heart of the ADA and crucial to making inclusion a reality.


Following the passage of President Donald Trump’s tax bill, which will cut aproximately $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next several years, these support systems are in jeopardy. This attack on Medicaid threatens to unravel decades of progress toward equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities, as access to these services will undoubtedly become more limited.

 

Trump wants to criminalize and institutionalize the unhoused while slashing funding for housing, mental health care, and veterans’ services. You don’t get to gut the social safety net AND cage the fallout.

This executive order is just cruelty masquerading as policy. https://t.co/bnh0MGmzus

— Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (@repcleaver) July 25, 2025

Collateral Damage of the Vaccine-Autism Myth

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's Secretary of HHS. 

Apoorva Mandavilli:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday formally rescinded federal recommendations for all flu vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism.

The decision cements a move last month by vaccine advisers whom Mr. Kennedy named to the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices after abruptly firing all 17 previous members.

After hearing a presentation by the former leader of an anti-vaccine group, the panel had voted to walk back federal recommendations for all flu vaccines containing thimerosal.

...

The thimerosal decision will not affect most Americans seeking flu vaccines: The preservative is added to multidose vials of flu vaccines to prevent bacteria from growing, but it is not an ingredient of the single-dose vials administered to most people.

During the 2024-25 respiratory virus season, only 3 percent of children and 2 percent of older adults received flu vaccines containing thimerosal, according to an analysis of electronic health records by Truveta, a company that analyzes such records.

Still, multidose vials are needed in places where it is difficult to store many vaccines, such as nursing homes or mobile clinics serving remote rural areas.

Mr. Kennedy’s sign-off does not withdraw vaccines containing thimerosal from the market. But his rescinding the federal recommendation means that such shots may not be available to Americans, because insurance companies are no longer required to cover them

Antivaxxer Got Measles and Might Have Spread It

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

Melody Schreiber at The Guardian:

One of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the US says he caught measles in west Texas and traveled back home – but he seems not to have alerted local authorities of his illness, which means the highly transmissible virus may have spread onward.

...

 Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense, filmed an interview in west Texas in March with the parents of the six-year-old child who died from measles – the first measles death in the US in a decade.

The video promoted several dangerous myths about the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective at preventing measles, a virus that can be deadly and can cause lifelong harm.

Hooker and Polly Tommey, an anti-vaccine film-maker with Children’s Health Defense, also interviewed other Mennonite families in west Texas. And they visited the medical office of Ben Edwards while patients and Edwards himself had symptomatic measles, they said.

Hooker then traveled home to Redding, California, and developed measles symptoms, he said.

“Full disclosure, 18 days after visiting Seminole, Texas, sitting in a measles clinic and being exposed to Doctor Ben with the measles, I got the measles. So cool,” Hooker said
...

Hooker is a prominent figure in the anti-vaccine community. He testified on Tuesday before a US Senate committee in its first-ever “vaccine injury” hearing, attempting to link MMR vaccination to autism – despite numerous studies showing no relationship.

Medicaid Cuts and People with Disabilities

The Politics of Autism includes an extensive discussion of insurance and Medicaid services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) are particularly important. Congress has voted to slash Medicaid.

Maggie Astor at NYT:

Federal law deems most home- and community-based services as optional, so they are often targeted when states have to tighten their belts. When temporary Great Recession increases in Medicaid funding expired in the early 2010s, for example, every state reduced home care by limiting enrollment or lowering spending on existing recipients.

...

Health care experts anticipate cuts to home- and community-based care in some states because the new law limits provider taxes. Almost every state taxes hospitals, then uses the revenue to pay the hospitals for treating Medicaid patients. That increases Medicaid spending on paper and triggers more federal matching funds, which states use to cover various Medicaid services.

The 22 affected states where provider taxes are higher than the new law’s cap — 3.5 percent of net patient revenue — will lose federal money. The White House argued that this would not affect home- and community-based care because states could make up the difference by paying hospitals less for Medicaid services, reducing the rates to match those of its sister program, Medicare.

Experts said the White House’s argument was unrealistic. Not all states pay higher prices for Medicaid than for Medicare, and even for those that do, the numbers don’t add up, Dr. [Benjamin] Sommers said. Many states will have to find money somewhere else, too, and each state will have to choose whether that somewhere is home- and community-based care or another part of their budget.

...

Reductions could come in several forms. States could place further restrictions on who qualifies for coverage, cover fewer hours of care or lower pay for home health workers. Or they could eliminate waiver programs altogether. Even at existing funding levels, hundreds of thousands of people are on waiting lists for waivers, and those lines could get longer.

Measles Elimination Status

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's Secretary of HHS. 

Nina Golgowski at HuffPost:

The U.S. has reported more measles cases in the first half of this year than in any full year since 1992, raising concerns that the country could lose its measles elimination status and undo a 25-year public health victory amid declining vaccine rates.

But exactly what does that risk mean and how close is it to really happening?

For two decades, HuffPost has been fearless, unflinching, and relentless in pursuit of the truth. Support our mission to keep us around for the next 20 — we can’t do this without you.

The World Health Organization sets the criteria for elimination status, requiring a country — or defined geographical area — to go at least 12 months without continuous domestic transmission of a virus. That means any new outbreaks during that time must come from people who contracted the virus from outside, not inside, the U.S.

Under that criteria, the U.S. has until January to eliminate the nation’s current outbreaks, which is a year after cases started domestically in Texas, according to epidemiology experts. If it doesn’t, the U.S.’s measles elimination status could be taken away.

“It could be more impactful than a lot of Americans think about since we have had measles elimination status for so long,” Brittany Kmush, associate professor and graduate director of Syracuse University’s Public Health Department, told HuffPost.

“It could affect U.S. citizens’ ability to travel to specific countries if they don’t want the risk of measles getting introduced to their country. It could affect other people’s ability to come visit the U.S. Other countries might require proof of measles vaccination before they can reenter their home country,” she said.

There could also be increased quarantine and isolation requirements, with potential economic fallout, she said.

Placards and Invisible Disabilities

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families -- as well as efforts to mitigate them.   One challenge is that autism is an "invisible disability," which does not have obvious physical markers.  

From the California DMV:

DMV Legal Affairs Division (LAD) determined that non-physical, mental, and developmental disabilities, such as autism or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may substantially impair or interfere with mobility and are eligible for a DP placard. However, these disabilities require the medical provider to certify the disability substantially impairs or interferes with mobility.

Descriptions that only contain abbreviations (such as, R60.9) or only list symptoms (such as, trouble walking) require further explanation.

Examples of acceptable descriptions include, but are not limited to:Parkinson’s disease

• Arthritis of ankle and foot
• Congestive heart failure
• Diabetes mellitus with peripheral vascular disease
• Autism
• PTSD

Politics Girl (Leigh McGowan):

Here’s how you tell if someone is disabled or not… pic.twitter.com/hPJ1L0Ferx

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) July 18, 2025

Autism Family Caregivers Act

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.

A June 26 press release from Rep. Dave Min (D-CA):

Today, Representative Dave Min (CA-47), alongside Grace Meng (NY-06) Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Don Bacon (NE-02), and Maria Salazar (FL-27), introduced bipartisan legislation to provide skills training for parents and caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental disabilities. The bill would establish a pilot program to award grants to nonprofits, community health centers, and hospitals to provide evidence-based caregiver skills training to family caregivers of children with these conditions.

“Roughly one in thirty one children are diagnosed with autism in America,” said Rep. Min. “We need to provide parents with the tools and support to empower their children’s growth and development. Caregiver skill training is proven to help children with special needs flourish. We owe it to our kids to provide them with the resources they need to thrive.”

“Too many families navigating autism face the journey without the guidance and support they deserve. The Autism Family Caregivers Act takes direct action—delivering practical training through local organizations to help caregivers build skills, reduce stress, and improve outcomes for their children. I’ve been working with families and advocates across our PA-1 community who’ve made one thing clear: if we want better results, we have to better equip those doing the work at home. This bill answers that call—and I’m committed to driving it forward,” said Rep. Fitzpatrick.

“Children with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities deserve to have all the tools they need to reach their full potential in life,” said Rep. Grace Meng. “In order to make that possible, we must make sure caregivers are equipped with the training and support to provide the level of assistance each child needs. This bipartisan bill demonstrates our commitment in Congress to the dedicated caregivers who are giving endless amounts of time and energy toward helping their loved ones live full and complete lives. I am proud to join my colleagues in reintroducing this important bill.”

“I'm pleased to co-lead the Autism Family Caregivers Act, important bipartisan legislation providing essential skills training to family caregivers of children with autism and developmental disabilities,” said Rep. Bacon. “This five-year pilot program will award grants to community organizations nationwide. Through evidence-based training, we'll help families better support their loved ones with improved communication, daily living skills, and behavior management.”

As Co-Chair of the Congressional Autism Caucus, I am committed to empowering caregivers that serve children with autism,” said Rep. Cuellar. “I applaud my colleagues for working across the aisle to help introduce the bipartisan Autism Family Caregivers Act. This bill will train family caregivers using existing medical facilities and organizations to help improve the well-being of children with autism and developmental disabilities.”

“I’m proud to co-lead the Autism Family Caregivers Act, bipartisan legislation delivering essential support directly to the families who need it most,” said Rep. María Elvira Salazar. “This pilot program equips caregivers in Florida’s 27th district and nationwide with critical skills to care for loved ones with autism and developmental disabilities. Strong caregivers build resilient families, and resilient families strengthen America.”

“We’re grateful to Representatives David Min, Grace Meng, Brian Fitzpatrick, Henry Cuellar, Don Bacon, and Maria Salazar for reintroducing this important legislation,” said Keith Wargo, President & CEO of Autism Speaks. “Families have told us time and again how critical caregiver support and training are to their children’s growth and well-being. The Autism Family Caregivers Act responds to that need—bringing evidence-based skills training into communities across the country and helping to address disparities in access to care. Empowering caregivers ultimately means empowering autistic people to thrive.”

“Easterseals Southern California strongly supports the Autism Family Caregivers Act of 2025,” said Dr. Paula Pompa-Craven, Chief Clinical Officer of Easterseals Southern California. As one of the largest autism therapy service providers in the US, we see how caregiver training significantly improves the well-being of autistic children and their families. There are few evidence-based and demonstrated caregiver training programs, and the demand for training far surpasses the supply of resources. We are confident the benefits of autism family caregivers training will improve the lives of the children, families and communities where they reside. We support this bipartisan bill and applaud the cosponsors for addressing this healthcare void.”

“As a leading nonprofit organization with 25 years of experience serving Korean American families of children with Autism and related developmental disabilities, we wholeheartedly support Autism Family Caregiver Act of 2025," said Dr. Hyun Park, M.D. with the Korean Special Education Center (KASEC). “Through our work, we have seen firsthand many challenges of raising a child with disability and the importance of teaching culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies to improve wellbeing of children with developmental disability and their caregivers. This experience has reinforced our strong belief in the importance of caregiver training, making us especially excited about this bill’s potential to empower families, equip caregivers with essential skills, and create a lasting positive impact on children with autism and their communities.”

This bill is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Autism Speaks, Autism Society, Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, Chinese American Association for the Autistic Community, Community Inclusion & Development Alliance, Easterseals of Southern California, Easterseals, Inc., Family Voices, Korean American Special Education Center, National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, and The Arc.

The bill is cosponsored by Representatives Grace Meng (NY-06), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Don Bacon (NE-02), Maria Salazar (FL-27), Lou Correa (CA-46), David Valadao (CA-22), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11), Eleanor Norton Holmes (DC-AL), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Steve Cohen (TN-09), Jahana Hayes (CT-05), John Mannion (NY-22), Timothy Kennedy (NY-26), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Sarah McBride (DE-AL), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), and Robert Garcia (CA-42).

Bill text can be found here.

Slowing Civil Rights Enforcement

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities. 

At AP, Collin Binkley reports on civil rights enforcement at the Department of Education. McMahon says personnel cuts have not slowed it down.  

By several measures, however, the output of the Office for Civil Rights appears to have fallen sharply in comparison with previous years. A public database of the office’s resolution agreements — cases in which schools or universities voluntarily agreed to address civil rights concerns — suggests the office’s work has slowed.

The database lists just 65 resolutions so far this year, on pace to fall far below previous years’ totals. Last year the office logged 380 resolutions in total, following 561 in 2023. During President Donald Trump’s first term, the office averaged more than 800 resolutions a year, including 1,300 during his first year in office.

Other internal data obtained by The Associated Press show a similar trend. Since Trump took office, the total number of resolved cases is down about 40% from the same time frame last year — including cases that were dismissed, mediated or reached a voluntary resolution. Compared with last year, there also has been a 70% decrease in the number of cases resolved through resolution agreements or action taken by a school to comply with federal law, the internal data shows.

Meanwhile, new complaints have increased 9%. The total number of cases has now climbed beyond 25,000.

...

Adrienne Hazel filed a complaint in April after her 20-year-old son Ricky, who has autism, was placed in a public school program without a certified teacher and was not given an individual learning plan. Hazel, of Southfield, Michigan, has not heard from the federal office after receiving an automatic reply when she filed the complaint.

Things moved faster last year when Hazel filed a separate complaint for her son. The office notified Ricky’s school, which Hazel says spurred the district to reach an agreement with her within about three months. This time, she said, it feels like she’s on her own.

“There has been zero response to this,” she said. “He’s basically going into a babysitting situation. He’s not getting the things that he needs to grow into independence. And he’ll just be aging without getting an education.”

Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate in Michigan who worked with Hazel, said such stories are common. She helps families file complaints but warns it could take at least a year before an investigation opens. Some schools have backtracked on previous agreements, she said, yet parents can’t get a response from the federal office.

“It’s horrible. I’m watching children suffer like they’ve never suffered,” she said. “There is no accountability.”

RFK, Vaccines, Measles

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's Secretary of HHS. 

 Jonathan Corum and Teddy Rosenbluth at NYT:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 1,309 measles cases as of Tuesday, the highest number of annual cases since the United States declared measles eliminated in 2000.

That number includes 1,151 cases related to measles outbreaks and 158 isolated cases, typically linked to international travel.

With six months left in the year, the country has surpassed the case count from 2019 — the worst year until now — when measles infected 1,274 people around the country, including large outbreaks in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York.

Teddy Rosenbluth at NYT:

Dr. Stacey Bartell wanted to offer vaccines to her patients. But at her small family medicine practice in a Detroit suburb, she could not find a way to make the finances work.

...

So a few weeks ago, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, claimed in an interview with Tucker Carlson that vaccine profits created “perverse incentives” for pediatricians to push immunizations, Dr. Bartell was confused.

Doctors widely consider vaccines to be a money pit. Research shows that most pediatricians either break even or lose money on shots. One 2017 study found that nearly a quarter of family medicine providers and 12 percent of pediatricians stopped purchasing vaccines because of prohibitive costs.

To many experts, suggesting otherwise not only ignored that data, but also sent a dangerous message: that patients should doubt their doctor’s motives in recommending vaccines.

“This idea that we vaccinate kids to make money honestly is misleading and dangerous,” said Dr. David Higgins, a pediatrician and preventive medicine expert at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

 Patricia Callahan at Pro Publica:

Five months after taking over the federal agency responsible for the health of all Americans, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to overhaul an obscure but vital program that underpins the nation’s childhood immunization system.

Depending on what he does, the results could be catastrophic.

In his crosshairs is the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a system designed to provide fair and quick payouts for people who suffer rare but serious side effects from shots — without having to prove that drugmakers were negligent. Congress created the program in the 1980s when lawsuits drove vaccine makers from the market. A special tax on immunizations funds the awards, and manufacturers benefit from legal protections that make it harder to win big-money verdicts against them in civil courts.

Kennedy, who founded an anti-vaccination group and previously accused the pharmaceutical industry of inflicting “unnecessary and risky vaccines” on children for profits, has long argued that the program removes any incentive for the industry to make safe products.

In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Kennedy condemned what he called corruption in the program and said he had assigned a team to overhaul it and expand who could seek compensation. He didn’t detail his plans but did repeat the long-debunked claim that vaccines cause autism and suggested, without citing any evidence, that shots could also be responsible for a litany of chronic ailments, from diabetes to narcolepsy.