DeVos Won't Seek IDEA Waiver Authority

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families. Those challenges get far more intense during disasters.  And coronavirus is proving to be the biggest disaster of all. Providing education is proving to be very difficult.

A release from the Department of Education:

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today reaffirmed her long-held position that individualized education must take place for all students, including students with disabilities. As a result, the Secretary is not recommending Congress pass any additional waiver authority concerning the Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), reiterating that learning must continue for all students during the COVID-19 national emergency.

As requested by Congress in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Secretary DeVos examined certain federal education laws to determine what, if any, additional waiver authority the Secretary believes is necessary to provide limited flexibility to state and local education agencies during this unprecedented time. The Secretary determined there is no reason that a student's access to FAPE cannot continue online, through distance education or other alternative strategies.

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While not advising any waivers to the core tenets of IDEA, the Department is requesting that Congress consider additional flexibilities on administrative requirements under the Perkins Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the IDEA.

The Secretary requested that Congress defer the work or repayment requirements or allow credit to be given for the service obligation for recipients of IDEA personnel preparation grants (personnel development scholarships) if employment was interrupted by COVID-19.

Regarding the Perkins Act, the Secretary is also recommending a waiver that would allow local education agencies (LEAs) to keep any funds allotted to them for the 2019-2020 academic year that they have not spent during the COVID-19 national emergency. Without this waiver, LEAs would otherwise lose this money and have to return it to the state.

The Secretary also requested Congress to permit Vocational Rehabilitation funds to be used to replace expired or spoiled food products at Randolph-Sheppard vending sites required to close due to COVID-19, thus providing support to vendors and allowing facilities to reopen more efficiently following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Secretary recommended several additional waiver authorities relating to the Perkins Act, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, the IDEA, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. For a complete list of waiver recommendations and to access the full Recommendation of Waiver Authority report to Congress, click here.

"Suck it up and keep moving. You just have to."

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families. Those challenges get far more intense during disasters.  And coronavirus is proving to be the biggest disaster of all. Providing education is proving to be very difficult.

Eliza Shapiro and Elizabeth A. Harris at NYT:

[New York City] is home to roughly 200,000 public school students with disabilities. Now, the already-strained special education system must transform how they are educated, which includes crucial services — like speech, occupational and physical therapy — that are extremely difficult and in some cases impossible to translate online.

The city has already encountered some stark realities about remote special education in the first weeks of distance learning.

Interviews with about two dozen educators and parents showed wide agreement that, even if remote learning were executed perfectly, students with special needs would fall behind academically and socially.
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The city and state Education Departments have given New York City schools permission to cut down on some special services and to delay special education services for children who need them for the first time.

And though Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has encouraged districts to keep up their online instruction, she is weighing whether to ask Congress for the authority to waive parts of federal education law requiring school districts to provide special education services, which could lead to huge disruptions in online instruction.
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Mary Girimonte, who has a class of eight students on the autism spectrum at her school in Bushwick, Brooklyn, said her biggest struggle during the normal school year was getting her class to focus and make eye contact. In school, she often uses a rock wall or a balance beam to help her students calm down, but is now stuck trying to soothe them through video chats.

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“There’s days where I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ I just want to crumple up and cry,” said Manisha Shah-Balangon, who lives in Rego Park, Queens, and has a child on the autism spectrum.

“So I just say, ‘Suck it up and keep moving,’” she said. “You just have to.”

Lawmakers Urge End to Dangerous Restraint and Seclusion

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the use of restraint and seclusion.  Many posts have mentioned these techniques, both in schools and facilities for people with disabilities.

A release from Rep. Sean Casten (D-Illinois):

U.S. Representative Sean Casten (D-IL-06), along with U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), led a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, asking the Department to issue federal guidance banning public schools’ use of seclusion and restraint practices that restrict student’s breathing and create other life-threatening conditions.

This letter follows a November 2019 joint report by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois that revealed that in Illinois alone, there were over 20,000 seclusions from August 2017 to December 2018. The same report also found that hundreds of these seclusions involved children in first grade or younger and disproportionately involved children with disabilities. This prompted the Illinois State Board of Education to issue an emergency rule to ban these practices. However, only four other states have taken similar action, leaving millions of children still at risk.

The letter said in part, “We are gravely concerned by harmful student seclusion and restraint practices occurring in schools around our country…The use of seclusion and dangerous restraints is putting the psychological well-being and lives of children at risk every day and must be addressed at the federal level immediately. We respectfully urge you to update the Department of Education’s 2016 guidance to ban seclusion, ban restraints that restrict breathing and are life-threatening, and promote evidence-based alternatives to reduce the use of physical restraint.”

The letter was also signed by U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-09), Mike Quigley (D-IL-05), Danny K. Davis (D-IL-07), Cheri Bustos (D-IL-17), Brad Schneider (D-IL-10), Bill Foster (D-IL-11), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08), Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL-04), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07)

Read the full letter below or click here.

January 15, 2020
The Honorable Betsy DeVos
Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20202

Dear Secretary DeVos:

We are gravely concerned by harmful student seclusion and restraint practices occurring in schools around our country. We respectfully urge you to update your federal guidance banning seclusion, banning restraints that restrict breathing and are life-threatening, and promoting evidence-based, positive behavior strategies and de-escalation techniques to reduce the use of physical restraint.

According to a November 2019 report by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica IL, children as young as five, disproportionately children with disabilities, are being locked alone in empty rooms for behavioral concerns or to “calm down” after misbehavior. In reality, the rooms have the opposite effect: children throw themselves at the door and scratch at the windows trying to escape. Some are recorded as urinating on themselves, undressing, attempting to commit suicide, or crying out that they want to die. Tragically, in some states, children have died in seclusion rooms.

In Illinois alone, 20,000 such seclusions were reported from August 2017 to December 2018, hundreds of which involved children in first grade or younger, according to the November Tribune article. Not only does this practice cause students to miss valuable classroom time—some are secluded for hours on end—it can also cause serious physical and psychological trauma. A December Tribune and ProPublica IL follow-up article found that restraints—including restraints that can restrict breathing—were being used even when students and staff were not in physical danger, in violation of Illinois law.

We were relieved that, following the publication of the November report, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) responded swiftly to ban seclusion in schools across the state. However, that makes Illinois only the fifth state to ban seclusion. There are tens of millions of American children still at risk of experiencing this detrimental practice.

The use of seclusion and dangerous restraints are putting the psychological well-being and lives of children at risk every day and must be addressed at the federal level immediately. We respectfully urge you to update the Department of Education’s 2016 guidance to ban seclusion, ban restraints that restrict breathing and are life-threatening, and promote evidence-based alternatives to reduce the use of physical restraint.

We appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

With All Deliberate Speed: DeVos and a a Court Order

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

Christina Samuels at Education Week:

Nearly a year ago, the U.S. Department of Education said it was putting on hold for two years the implementation of an Obama-era rule that had the potential to affect how millions of dollars in federal special education dollars could be spent.

Nearly a month ago, a judge reversed the Education Department's delay, saying it was an "arbitrary and capricious" decision.

On Wednesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was pressed by Rep. Donna Shalala, a Democrat from Florida, on the department's plans in the wake of the court decision.

"We are currently reviewing the district court order and deciding on next steps. We are moving toward implementation," DeVos told Shalala—similar to the response she gave when she was asked the same question by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut in late March.

"You've had a month to review the order. The order isn't very complicated," Shalala told DeVos.

 The underlying issue, though, is complex. The Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act requires states to monitor how districts identify minority students for special education, discipline them, or place them in restrictive settings. 

"Disgusting and Shameful"

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss federal spending for people with autism and other disabilities. 

Todd Spangler at The Detroit Free Press:

President Donald Trump reversed course Thursday afternoon and said that his administration would continue to fund the Special Olympics despite Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' defending the proposed cut this week to Congress.

Speaking before leaving the White House for a campaign rally Thursday night in Grand Rapids, Trump told reporters simply, "The Special Olympics will be funded, I just told my people."

He offered no additional information about whether his administration will commit to funding the entire $17.6 million Special Olympics had been getting and whether it will be protected from future proposed reductions.

Earlier in the day, DeVos defended the cut against questioning from Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL):

"I've given a portion of my salary to Special Olympics," said DeVos, raising her voice as Durbin tried to interrupt her with more questions about the cut. "Let's not use disabled children in a twisted way for your political narrative. That's just disgusting and is shameful."

Laura Meckler at WP:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Thursday her department has not begun implementing an Obama-era regulation designed to ensure children of color are not disproportionately punished or sent to special-education classrooms, despite a court order.

Three weeks ago, a federal court ruled that the Trump administration must implement the rule immediately. On Thursday, DeVos told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the Education Department was still “reviewing the court’s decision and discussing our options.”

DeVos Update

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss federal spending for people with autism and other disabilities. 

Christina Samuels at Education Week:

[There] is no proposed cut to special education grants to states, and a spokesman for Pocan acknowledged that the congressman misspoke. One of the Education Department's proposed budget tables—which is in billions, not millions—shows about $840 million moving from a $3 billion allocation in fiscal year 2019 to the budget that is currently under debate, for fiscal year 2020. It looks like a cut from $3 billion to $2.2 billion, but it's just a shift of when the dollars are going to be allocated.

 At Roll Call, Niels Lesniewski reports that DeVos's proposal to zero out Special Olympics funding is dead on arrival.

The leader of the official U.S. delegation to the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games, which wrapped up last week in Abu Dhabi, was none other than Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt.

Blunt is the chairman of the Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee of Appropriations, which has jurisdiction over the Education Department budget and is set to hear testimony from DeVos on Thursday morning.

“I’m a longtime supporter of Special Olympics and proud that Missouri is home to the largest Special Olympics training facility in the world. I was just at the World Games and saw, as I have many times before, what a huge impact the organization has on athletes, their families, and their communities,” Blunt said in a statement. “Our Department of Education appropriations bill will not cut funding for the program.”

DeVos v. People with Disabilities

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss federal spending for people with autism and other disabilities. 

Doha Madani at NBC:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos struggled before a congressional subcommittee on Tuesday to defend at least $7 billion in proposed cuts to education programs, including eliminating all $18 million in federal funding for the Special Olympics.

Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan pushed DeVos on her proposed cuts to the Special Olympics and other special education programs during her testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee.

When Pocan asked whether she knew how many children would be affected by the elimination of federal funding to the Special Olympics, DeVos said she did not know.
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Pocan at that point interrupted the education secretary to point out that the proposed budget includes a 26 percent reduction to state grants for special education and millions of dollars in cuts to programs for students who are blind.

After referring to his own nephews with autism, Pocan asked DeVos, "What is it that we have a problem with, with children who are in special education?"

She replied, “Supporting children with special needs, we have continued to hold that funding at a level amount and in the context of a budget proposal that is a 10 percent reduction."

The congressman stopped DeVos and claimed she was not answering his question.

In @BetsyDeVosED’s budget, there are major cuts to programs like the Special Olympics. Sec. DeVos didn’t know the number of kids who would be hurt by that cut, so I made sure she now knows that 272,000 kids are seeing their support taken away. pic.twitter.com/6ZiOfDU4Ou

— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 26, 2019

Budget Issues

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

At Education Week, Christina Samuels notes federal budget issues:

Full funding: This budget doesn't come close to funding IDEA at the level that Congress is authorized to spend. When the IDEA was passed in 1975, Congress gave itself permission to send to states up to 40 percent of the "average per pupil expenditure" to meet the goals of the law. In contrast, the federal contribution to special education in this budget proposal is around 13 percent. The amount of federal money proposed per pupil ages 3-21—$1,758—has actually gone down a bit, by $12, compared to the previous fiscal year. That's because the number of special education students has gone up. Will lawmakers ask DeVos about this (and will any of them commit to pushing for a full-funding bill themselves?)

Equity in IDEA rule: This topic isn't directly related to the budget proposal, but it does involve money. A federal district judge ruled that the Education Department cannot delay a rule intended to prompt states to pay closer attention to minority overrepresentation in special education. The rule is complicated, but the upshot is that more school districts may find themselves having to spend a portion of their federal funds on remedying what the law calls "significant disproportionality." The judge made her ruling March 7, and the Education Department hasn't offered a public hint yet of whether it will continue to defend its delay. Congressmembers might attempt to get some clarification on the Department's plans.

Scholarship program and students with disabilities: The administration is supporting a $5 billion scholarship program that would provide federal tax credits to individuals and companies that donate to scholarship-granting groups. If passed, these scholarships could help pay for a variety of educational activities, including helping special education students attend private schools. Students with disabilities who enroll in private school lose some of the individual protections that come with the IDEA, however. Democratic lawmakers have frequently pressed DeVos on this issue, and it might come up again.

Initiative to Address the Inappropriate Use of Restraint and Seclusion

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the use of restraint and seclusion.  Many posts have mentioned these techniques, both in schools and facilities for people with disabilities.

A Thursday release from the US Department of Education:

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced today that the U.S. Department of Education will launch an initiative to address the possible inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion in our nation’s schools. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), in partnership with the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), will oversee this proactive approach which will protect students with disabilities by providing technical assistance and support to schools, districts, and state education agencies, and strengthen enforcement activities.

“This initiative will not only allow us to support children with disabilities, but will also provide technical assistance to help meet the professional learning needs of those within the system serving students,” Secretary DeVos said. “The only way to ensure the success of all children with disabilities is to meet the needs of each child with a disability. This initiative furthers that important mission.”

The Department’s Initiative to Address the Inappropriate Use of Restraint and Seclusion will not only include components that help schools and districts understand how federal law applies to the use of restraint and seclusion, but the Department will also support schools seeking resources and information on the appropriate use of interventions and supports to address the behavioral needs of students with disabilities.

The Department’s initiative will include the following three components:

Compliance Reviews

• OCR’s 12 regional offices will conduct compliance reviews on recipients’ use of restraint and seclusion on children with disabilities.
• Compliance reviews will focus on the possible inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion, and the effect of such practices on the school’s obligation to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for all children with disabilities.
• OCR will conduct compliance reviews and work with public schools to correct noncompliance.

CRDC Data Collection

• OCR will conduct data quality reviews and work directly with school districts to review and improve restraint and seclusion data submitted as a part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC).
• OCR will provide technical assistance to schools on data quality, to ensure that they are collecting and reporting accurate data relating to the use of restraint and seclusion.

Support for Recipients

• OCR will provide technical assistance to public schools on the legal requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act relating to the use of restraint and seclusion on children with disabilities.
• OCR will partner with OSERS to provide joint technical assistance to support recipients in understanding how Section 504, Title II, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) informs the development and implementation of policies governing the use of restraint and seclusion.
• OSERS will support recipients identified by OCR through compliance reviews or through the complaint resolution process to ensure they have access to appropriate technical assistance and support.
• OSERS will support schools to ensure they have access to technical assistance and available resources as they establish or enhance environments where the implementation of interventions and supports reduces the need for reliance on less effective and potentially dangerous practices.
• OSERS will consider how current investments may be utilized to provide support and training to schools, districts, and states.
• OSERS and OCR will jointly plan and conduct webinars for interested parties related to the use of appropriate interventions and supports for all students.

“In collaboration with OSERS, we will work to ensure that recipients are aware of their legal obligation under Section 504 and Title II, and that we have accurate information and data on the use of restraint and seclusion,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kenneth L. Marcus. “Working directly with schools and districts provides an excellent opportunity to help recipients and support their efforts toward compliance to ensure that all children have an opportunity to succeed in the classroom.”

“OSERS has long focused on improving results and outcomes for children with disabilities,” said Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Johnny W. Collett. “Rethinking special education and challenging the status quo includes examining systems that keep us from making the kind of improvement we know is necessary. This initiative furthers our ongoing efforts to examine any practice that limits opportunities for children with disabilities.”

School Safety

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

David Washburn at EdSource:

The long-awaited report from the Trump Administration’s school safety commission is being met by a chorus of criticism from the California education community, with state officials and representatives for school administrators joining youth advocates and union leaders in decrying some of the report’s key recommendations.
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On these fronts, the 180-page report released Tuesday contained few surprises. It strongly recommended rescinding the Obama administration’s “Rethinking School Discipline” policies issued through the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in 2014, which emphasized alternatives to suspensions and expulsions and highlighted data showing that students of color and those with disabilities were up to three times as likely as white students to face these punishments, often for similar nonviolent offenses.

The article quotes Dan Losen, who leads UCLA’s Center for Civil Rights Remedies.

Also concerning, say Losen and others, is that the Education Department under DeVos continues to scuttle civil rights investigations that were begun during the Obama years. In June, the investigative news organization ProPublica reported that DeVos’ department ended at least 1,200 investigations that had been ongoing for six months without finding wrongdoing.

While Losen said he has “faith that most educators will continue to address unjustified racial and disability disparities,” he worries that the report could “stiffen the backbones of superintendents and principals who are old-school believers in harsh policies and have resisted the overwhelming research” that they disproportionately hurt minority students.

Suing The Education Department Over IDEA

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

A press release from the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA):

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) for abdicating its responsibility to protect the civil rights of students. The suit alleges that the Department has taken actions that interfere with USDOE’s obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to ensure children with disabilities get the education services they need in the most appropriate setting without regard to their race.

COPAA filed the suit against the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary Betsy DeVos and Johnny W. Collett, Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, to challenge the Department’s notice delaying the implementation of regulations on significant disproportionality, known as the Equity in IDEA regulations. The Department's actions are legally flawed and bad policy that stall much needed reform.

It is just the second time in its 20-year history that COPAA has sued a federal agency. The decision to delay the regulation is an assault on children and the Department’s action sends mixed messages to the states regarding implementation of a key tool for civil rights enforcement. “The delay harms children and we can't afford a delay. We have real stories of kindergartners suspended 60 times; older boys and girls pushed out and criminalized for behaviors that are related to their disability. The state is not doing what it should to properly identify and serve students. We need the federal government to implement the regulations now,” said Shenikwa Medlock, a parent and advocate COPAA member in Texas. COPAA’s Executive Director, Denise Marshall said “the regulations respond to the reality that, despite being a requirement under IDEA for almost 15 years, many school districts have not taken the steps to correctly identify whether students of color need special education, sometimes under-identifying, sometime over-identifying, but rarely just right.”

According to the complaint, the significant disproportionality provision was intended to serve as an early-warning system for possible problems, analogous to a “check engine” light. When a State identifies racially significant disproportionality in a school district’s identification, placement, or discipline of students with disabilities, the State must review the school district’s policies, practices, and procedures to ensure they comply with the IDEA; engage in an analysis that identifies the factors contributing to the significant disproportionality, i.e., a root–cause analysis; and spend a percentage of their IDEA funds on comprehensive coordinated intervention services. There is no requirement that a school district eliminate a significant disproportionality if the disproportionality is not a result of violations of the IDEA but instead reflects differences among different student populations in that community.

COPAA is represented in the lawsuit by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) and Sidley Austin LLP. According to Seth Galanter, Senior Director of Legal Advocacy at NCYL “It's well documented that students of color who are wrongly identified as needing special education are improperly placed in restrictive classrooms, lose access to challenging academics, and are subjected to unfair disciplinary measures.” Galanter says a delay in implementing the Equity in IDEA regulations will prevent COPAA from bringing these and other harms to the attention of USDOE and the public.###

Read COPAA's Complaint

DeVos and Disability

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

Erica L. Green at NYT  reports on a new protocol at Education's Office for Civil Rights that provides for dismissal of civil rights complaints.

Department officials said the new policy targeted advocates who flooded the office with thousands of complaints for similar violations, jamming its investigation pipeline with cases that could be resolved without exhausting staff and resources. But civil rights advocates worry that the office’s rejection of legitimate claims is the most obvious example to date of its diminishing role in enforcing civil rights laws in the nation’s schools.

Liz Hill, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said the new provision was part of the office’s revision of its manual that lays out procedures for processing civil rights cases.

One of the "frequent lilers" is Marcie Lipsitt.

In the last two years, Ms. Lipsitt, a disability rights advocate in Michigan, has filed more than 2,400 complaints with the office against schools, departments of education, colleges and universities, libraries and other educational institutions across the country that have websites that people who are deaf or blind or who struggle with fine motor skills cannot navigate.

“No one even knew about this issue until I started filing,” Ms. Lipsitt said. “I didn’t want to get anybody in trouble. I just wanted to raise awareness.”

She has secured more than 1,000 agreements with institutions that committed to bringing their websites into compliance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities and requires that electronic and information technologies be accessible to them.

 In recent weeks, Ms. Lipsitt said, she has received notice that more than 500 cases, including active and open investigations, were dismissed. Each letter cited the new provision as the reason. The department will instead work with colleges on complying with web accessibility laws.

Mark Keierleber at The 74:

Since OCR updated its rules on March 5, more than 550 pending civil rights investigations that stemmed from Lipsitt’s complaints have been dismissed, she said, and about 100 new complaints have been dismissed.

Under the new rules, the Education Department dismissed a civil rights investigation against the Western Michigan Aviation Academy, a charter high school located at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport near Grand Rapids. That school was founded in 2010 by Dick DeVos, the husband of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Hill, the department spokeswoman, did not respond to questions about the episode.

How the Education Department Can Ignore Civil Rights Complaints

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

At Disability Scoop, Hannah Lang reports the the Education Department has a new way to thwart "mass filers," who file many civil rights complaints on behalf of others.

Since January 2016, Marcie Lipsitt has filed 2,400 complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights over web accessibility for people with disabilities.

Lipsitt, a Michigan-based special education activist, estimates that a thousand of those complaints have ended in resolutions. However, last month she began receiving letters notifying her that dozens of her complaints under investigation had been dismissed.

The reason: Under a new set of guidelines that went into effect March 5, the Office for Civil Rights can now dismiss reports if “a complaint is a continuation of a pattern of complaints previously filed with OCR by an individual or group against multiple recipients, or a complaint is filed for the first time … that places an unreasonable burden on OCR’s resources.”

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The guidelines in the manual also no longer allow for complainants to appeal if their case is dismissed. According to [Elizabeth] Hill at the Education Department, this system was eliminated because the appeals process seldom resulted in a different outcome.

“There’s absolutely no check and balance system at the OCR for any errors that are made in the investigation of complaints,” said Lipsitt.

If the complainant doesn’t agree with the dismissal, their only option now would be to hire a private lawyer to fight the decision — an option Lipsitt said many families can’t afford.

In August, Politico reported:

Betsy DeVos’ Education Department has closed more than 1,500 civil rights complaints at the nation’s schools — including dismissing more than 900 outright — in the two months since her acting civil rights chief took steps to reduce a massive backlog.

The June directive from acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Candice Jackson told the department's investigators to narrow their focus to the merits of a particular claim, rather than probing systemic issues, as they had done during the Obama administration. Jackson also gave regional civil rights offices more autonomy to close cases without approval from D.C.

The dismissals come as civil rights groups and Democrats express fear the Trump administration will “diminish” civil rights enforcement — a major focus of former President Barack Obama’s Education Department. Advocacy groups said that while the data offers just a two-month snapshot, the large number of dismissals and so-called “administrative closures” — in which a case is closed without any findings of wrongdoing — are alarming.

A Skeptical View of DeVos

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

Steven Singer at Common Dreams:

The wealthy Republican mega-donor who bought her position as Secretary of Educationpublished an article in the current issue of Education Week called “Commentary: Tolerating Low Expectations for Students With Disabilities Must End.”

It was almost like she expected us all to forget who she actually is and her own sordid history with these kinds of children.

Up until now, the billionaire heiress and public school saboteur always put the needs of profitizers and privateers ahead of special needs children.

During her confirmation hearing, she refused to say whether she would hold private, parochial and charter schools receiving tax dollars to the same standard as public schools in regard to how they treat special education students. Once on the job, she rescinded 72 federal guidelines that had protected special education students.

Singer also mentions Neurocore, the shady "brain performance" outfit in which DeVos invested and for which she was a board member. 

Civil Rights, Disabilities, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline

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

At Education Week, Christina Samuels reports on a session of the US Commission on Civil Rights:

The name of the session, "The School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Intersections of Students of Color with Disabilities," offered a clue to the stance of some panelists who spoke before the bipartisan commission: That too many students with disabilities are being placed in special education, and once there, they face punitive discipline that puts many of them on a rocky path to incarceration.

"We can't afford to ignore this problem," said Eve Hill, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's civil rights division. "We're wasting the talents and skills of tens of thousands of children every year."

But that wasn't a view shared by every panelist, nor by every commissioner. Peter Kirsanow, the only Republican on the commission, said that efforts by the federal government to reduce suspensions and expulsions have led to "unlawful quotas." He also asked if keeping disruptive students in school had a negative impact on the students who remained.

"The most vulnerable cohort would be students with disabilities," Kirsanow said, referring to other research on the high rates of bullying toward students in special education.

At US News, Lauren Camera reports on DeVos's review of Education Department rules.

Two of those regulations are at the heart of the current civil rights spat.

The first is a 2014 regulation aimed at stemming the school-to-prison pipeline by prodding schools to reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions of students of color and students with disabilities, both of whom receive such disciplinary actions at disproportionately high rates.

According to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, among the 2.6 million students suspended each year, black boys are three times more like than white boys to be suspended, black girls are six times more likely than white girls to be suspended, and students with disabilities are more than twice as likely as their peers to be suspended.

The second regulation, issued in 2016, established a more standardized method for how states calculate the threshold at which the percentage of black students classified as disabled becomes a "significant disproportionality" – a benchmark that triggers mandatory spending requirements for a portion of federal funds a district receives. The goal of the guidance, which is set to go into effect for the 2018-2019 school year, was to create a way to better monitor the long-held notion that students of color are identified as having learning disabilities at a greater rate than white students.

DeVos has not signaled whether her department is leaning toward repealing the regulations entirely, but she recently met with critics of the 2014 school discipline guidance and also recently published in the Federal Register a notice seeking comment on whether or not the compliance date for the 2016 regulation should be delayed until 2020.

Disability Advocates Distrust DeVos

In The Politics of Autism, I write about special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Recently, DeVos has taken some regulatory activities that concern advocates for special education.

The latest furor is of the department's own making, said Curtis Decker, the executive director of the National Disability Rights Network. He said his organization has a longstanding relationship with many of the people in the Education Department whose positions touch the lives of students with disabilities.

"They didn't have enough sense to call us and say, 'We're about to do this thing, don't worry, [the guidance] is pretty old, don't freak out,'" Decker said.

And, he said, the Trump administration has stirred up concerns among advocates that protections for people with disabilities are fair game for cuts or elimination that go well beyond special education. Proposed changes to Medicaid or to housing vouchers also affect people with disabilities, he said.

Funding concerns are also a factor. The approximately $13 billion for special education in the current federal budget is one of the biggest pots of money distributed by the Education Department.

There's no proposal on the table to cut special education funding. But, Decker noted, "If they're looking for savings, we're a fat little bird sitting there waiting to be cooked. We're all incredibly on edge."

DeVos Ponders Rollback of Minority Special Education Rule

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

Michael Stratford at Politico:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been weighing whether to delay and possibly scrap an Obama-era rule aimed at ensuring minority students aren’t placed in special education classes more often than necessary, Caitlin Emma reports. An unpublished draft of a Federal Register notice obtained by POLITICO shows that the Education Department has considered seeking input on whether that rule should be delayed by two years — and whether it should eventually be modified, replaced, removed or left unchanged. An Education Department official said the draft is an early version of the notice and has been significantly revised, but did not challenge its veracity. Caitlin has the story.

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Democrats on Wednesday night pounced on the news that DeVos has considered delaying the rule. “Why is it that key civil rights protections for students always seem to be on the chopping block for @BetsyDeVosED?,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) asked on Twitter. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said in a tweet that it “seems Betsy DeVos is on a mission to decimate basic protections for students at all levels.”House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said: “Instead of continuing this Admin’s civil rights attacks, @BetsyDeVosED *should* be expanding opportunities for all. Clearly, she is failing.”

Amanda Terkel at HuffPost:

A HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted Oct. 9-10 found that, indeed, DeVos is Trump’s most unpopular Cabinet official, alongside Jeff Sessions, the much more visible attorney general. DeVos and Sessions both have a 42 percent unfavorability rating in that poll. When asked which Cabinet members are doing a “bad job,” 32 percent of respondents picked Sessions and 32 percent picked DeVos. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said DeVos is doing a worse job than her predecessors, with just 20 percent saying she’s doing better and 12 percent saying she’s doing about the same.

A recent Morning Consult/Politico poll had similar results: DeVos was Trump’s most unpopular Cabinet secretary, with a net favorability rating of -12 percent, followed by Sessions, who was at -4 percent.

And in June, New York Times columnist Gail Collins conducted a reader poll for worst Trump Cabinet member. DeVos won.

DeVos is now a household name for many Democrats ― so much so that she has essentially become a new boogeyman for 2018. Democratic candidates nationwide are mentioning her in their fundraising emails.

Scrapping Guidance

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

At Education Week, Christina Samuels reports on a Trump effort to reduce regulations.

On Friday, the federal office for special education and rehabilitative services took its first crack at clearing the book of "outdated, unnecessary or ineffective regulations." In all, 63 pieces of guidance from the office for special education were identified for elimination.

That sounds like a lot. But it appears that many of the guidance documents were targeted because they're just very old. Fifty of the guidance documents marked for elimination predate the most recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was passed in November 2004. For example, one memo, which does not have a link available, is a 35-year-old letter to state chiefs about data collection for fiscal year 1983.
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This is just the first step in the process of clearing out old regulations and guidance; the department noted that it is still analyzing public comments.

But it's noteworthy that within special education, there are some pretty important regulations that cannot be eliminated or even substantively modified through this process, because the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act forbids it. Those include regulations related to parental consent to initial evaluation or initial placement in special education, least restrictive environment, timelines, and attendance of evaluation personnel at individualized education program meetings.

Those very substantive regulations were in place prior to July 20, 1983, and the IDEA says they can't be "procedurally or substantively lessened" without "the clear and unequivocal intent of Congress in legislation."

At Disability Scoop, Michelle Diament points out that the Department rescinded nine documents from the Rehabilitation Services Administration

DeVos Is Not Supporting Full Funding of IDEA

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

Christina Samuels at Education Week excerpts an interview with DeVos:

Would you push for full funding of IDEA? That's 40 percent of the excess cost of educating a child with disabilities.

I think it's a fair question to ask Congress about what the funding levels should be. Right now it's about 15 to 18 percent. And yet, the regulations continue to sort of get piled on here and there. They just continue to sort of make it more and more cumbersome and more and more burdensome for states and for local districts. There has to be, I think, a regular review of that and look at the balance of that, and see what's really right. But most of all what's really right for the students we're trying to serve and for the families and what kind of empowerment do they have in that decision-making.

So you want might want to call for slimming down regulation, but also upping the funding for IDEA. Do I have that about right?

I'm not advocating one way or another right now. I'm just saying it's clear that Congress has not funded it at the level they committed to when the law was passed. And I think that is something that should be reviewed on a regular basis.

Better Business Bureau v. DeVos Company

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

The conventional wisdom is that any kind of treatment is likely to be less effective as the child gets older, so parents of autistic children usually believe that they are working against the clock. They will not be satisfied with the ambiguities surrounding ABA, nor will they want to wait for some future research finding that might slightly increase its effectiveness. They want results now. Because there are no scientifically-validated drugs for the core symptoms of autism, they look outside the boundaries of mainstream medicine and FDA approval. Studies have found that anywhere from 28 to 54 percent of autistic children receive “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), and these numbers probably understate CAM usage.

As previous posts noted, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has a stake in Neurocore, a "brain training" company. U

At International Business Times, Josh Keefe reports that DeVos actually increased her stake in the "brain training" outfit called Neurocore and that the BBB is going after it.

The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus recommended this week that Neurocore “discontinue its testimonials.” The NAD said a review of the company’s claims, and their supporting evidence, led it to conclude that “the advertiser’s evidence was insufficiently reliable to substantiate the strong health-related advertising claims.”

According to the NAD, these claims include statements such as, “81% of children who come to us on ADHD meds and complete our program are able to reduce or eliminate their use of medications upon program completion,” as well as claims that Neurocore services produced a “25% reduction in reported symptoms on the autism evaluation checklists.”

The problem with the company’s claims, according to the NAD, is that they relied on a study of their own patients and those patients’ self-assessments.
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Advocates for students with disabilities including autism were especially alarmed by DeVos’ connection to Neurocore — a company that claimed its treatments produced a “25% reduction in reported symptoms on the autism evaluation checklists.”

“We have a lot of evidence-based treatments that actually do help children with autism,” Fred Volkmar, director of the Yale Child Study Center, told Spectrum News, a news site dedicated to autism research, in February. Volkmar said that DeVos’ awareness of treatments seemed to be limited to the one that “has not yet been shown to be effective.”