In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Mark Lieberman at Education Week:
School districts, state leaders, and education experts continue to sound the alarm that the Trump administration’s hold on $6.8 billion in federal funds Congress already allocated for education will disproportionately harm students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and English learners.
The Trump administration notified states last week that seven federal education programs are currently under “ongoing programmatic review” despite a July 1 disbursement date enshrined in federal law.
The federal government distributes money for those programs using formulas that prioritize school districts with high concentrations of poverty.
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The Trump administration sent the first of two scheduled installments of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funds ($15.8 billion in total) to every state as scheduled on July 1. But that doesn’t mean students with disabilities will be unaffected by federal funding changes.
Out of 5.3 million English learners nationwide, roughly 16%, or 837,000, also qualify for special education services. Some students who qualify for migrant education services or attend federally funded before- and after-school programs also have disabilities. Both could experience disrupted services as federal funding streams dry up more quickly than districts expected.
Many special education directors rely on Title IV-A funds in tandem with IDEA funds to provide mental health support and other health services for students with disabilities, said Myrna Mandlawitz, policy and legislative consultant for the Council of Administrators of Special Education.
The cancellation of that program has been particularly confounding, Mandlawitz said, because it’s a block-grant program just like the one the Trump administration has proposed in an effort to consolidate 18 separate federal funding streams.
“That is a flexible pot of $1.3 billion already allocated for school districts that they can use in a variety of ways,” Mandlawitz said. “To say you’re not going to give that money out makes absolutely no sense given their philosophy” on flexibility for states to spend education funds as they see fit
