Many posts have discussed Trump's bad record on disability issues. As his words and actions have shown, he despises Americans with disabilities. He told his nephew Fred that severely disabled people -- such as Fred's son -- should "just die."
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 are firing most of the staff who enforce it. A judge has temporarily paused the attack, but the administration will likely find ways to ignore or circumvent the order.
Roni Caryn Rabin at NYT:
The Trump administration has eliminated a funding stream that for the last 30 years has supported the only U.S. government-backed national research center focused on parents with disabilities.
The National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities will begin to phase out its operations on Aug. 31, when the current five-year grant ends, officials from the center said.
The center, based at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management, is a multiple university collaboration aimed at improving the lives of the 4.5 million U.S. parents with disabilities and their families. The center, which funds researchers in Boston and around the country, analyzes health care access and economic hardships faced by parents with disabilities and tracks state laws, serving as a clearinghouse for information on the issue.
The government has supported the center for decades through a competitive grant that has provided $500,000 a year in recent years and was slated to increase. Monika Mitra, the center’s director, said that an initial notice announcing the grant was posted a year ago, as is usually the case. But the more detailed information required to submit an application, which normally arrives in the grant application portal by February, never appeared. In July, the original link announcing the grant vanished.
...
The withdrawal of the funding comes in the wake of a series of administration announcements that have raised concerns for people with disabilities. In June, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a memo indicating that states were not required to provide services enabling people with disabilities to remain in their homes and not be forced into institutions. The administration also announced plans to move special education programs and civil rights enforcement in education out of the Education Department, which raised concerns among advocates who said the step would weaken oversight.
