In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The original name of the legislation was the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.
Project 2025 proposed to turn IDEA into a "no strings" block grant, effectively gutting the law and destroying protections that disability families have long relied upon. During the 2024 race, Trump denied any connection to the project, but now he proclaims it, praising OMB director Russ Vought "of Project 2025 fame."
Trump and Vought are now accomplishing their goal of ravaging the law. Instead of shifting it to a block grant, they have tried firing most of the staff who enforce it.
Coordination has always been a problem for disability programs. These changes will make it worse.
The roughly 45-minute discussion was cordial, according to three participants who spoke with Weekly Education. And agency officials committed to holding more discussions in the future.
Advocates are still worried about the potential fallout from transferring special education programs to federal agencies such as the Department of Labor or Health and Human Services.
“[McMahon] was very explicit that — particularly OSEP, which is what we were talking about mostly — was going to be moved out of the Department of Education and that the Department of Education was going to be dismantled,” said Laurie VanderPloeg, associate executive director at the Council for Exceptional Children, who was the director of the department’s Office of Special Education Programs during Trump’s first term.
“She did say that she was uncertain and that decisions had not been made in relation to whether OSEP would be moved to the Department of Labor or the Department of Health and Human Services,” said VanderPloeg, who attended the meeting.
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“She and the others in the room kept reiterating that they fully supported IDEA, that they fully support students with disabilities, and they don’t intend to cut anything from them,” Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, said of McMahon’s message during the meeting. “We, quite frankly, said, ‘While we appreciate those words, your actions don’t match them.’”
“That’s what we have grave concern about,” Marshall said. “Because when significant change like this is happening and the actions don’t match the rhetoric, or the words, or the information, that’s what leads to fear and confusion and chaos. And that’s what we think is happening right now.”
