Medicaid Cuts and Home Care

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. 

 O. Rose Broderick at STAT:

Thousands of family caregivers of people with intellectual and development disabilities in Maryland are facing a grim future after the Maryland Department of Health’s Developmental Disabilities Administration proposed steep cuts to their wages earlier this summer. Some caregivers are looking at $20 per hour pay cuts. The new wage tables were slated to go into effect July 1, but pushback from disability advocates delayed the changes to October. They say the cuts will force families to make an impossible choice between going bankrupt and institutionalizing their loved ones in facilities that often face higher rates of abuse and neglect.
...
Maryland is not an isolated case. Idaho, Indiana, Missouri and Colorado have all introduced proposals in 2026 that would dramatically slash pay for family caregivers and community care. Ohio legislators even proposed banning family members from being certified caregivers before ultimately dropping the measure. These states’ moves are a sign of the deadline looming over state health departments as the $1 trillion Medicaid funding cut tucked in the 2025 GOP-backed tax bill goes into effect Jan. 1, 2027.

...

“We know from the past that whenever the federal government reduces Medicaid, almost every state has made cuts to home and community-based services, and that those optional services include paying family caregivers,” said Kim Musheno, senior director of Medicaid policy at The Arc, a national nonprofit that advocates for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Soon after President Trump started his second term and discussed cutting Medicaid funds, disability advocates raised the alarm that home and community-based services probably would feel the brunt of those cuts, since the care is not mandatory. Since then, the Trump administration has targeted family caregivers, with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying in April that Medicaid-funded programs that pay family caregivers are “rife with fraud” and that those caregivers are doing tasks they used to do for free.

2,231 Measles Cases

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 top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

From CDC:

As of July 9, 2026, 2,231 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026. Among these, 2,218 measles cases were reported by 42 jurisdictions: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, 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, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. A total of 13 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States.

There have been 32 new outbreaks** reported in 2026, and 93% of confirmed cases (2,082 of 2,231) are outbreak-associated (717 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 1,365 from outbreaks that started in 2025).

In just a week or two, we are very likely to top last year's total of 2,289, for the greatest number of annual cases in 35 years.

Lena H. Sun at WP:

When South Carolina was battling an outbreak that ultimately sickened 997 people, most of them this year, the health department had lost dozens of epidemiologists, infection preventionists and other public health staff as a result of federal funding cuts, said Linda Bell, who recently retired as state epidemiologist.

“That was just very taxing for the remaining staff,” Bell said in an interview.

South Carolina scrambled to hire temporary staff, but Bell said the reinforcements couldn’t replace the expertise that had been lost and officials ultimately shifted from containment to mitigation.

The virus surged through dozens of schools in Spartanburg County, the outbreak epicenter, which long had lower childhood vaccination rates than much of the state. Students were sent into quarantine multiple times before the outbreak was declared over in April. Schools that required multiple rounds of quarantine had average vaccination rates of 77 percent, according to a recent study by Cornell University researchers.

Researchers said South Carolina’s outbreak reflected a pattern seen repeatedly in the U.S., in which faith communities with shared views on vaccination sustain and amplify transmission. Twenty-nine cases were linked to one church.

“I think that we transitioned from containment to mitigation because we saw ongoing spread for weeks and weeks,” said Bell, who retired in April.

...

Messages from elected and appointed leaders who reject evidence-based public health recommendations have undermined outbreak responses, said Bell, who did not identify officials by name. Since taking office, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has questioned vaccine safety, reshaped federal vaccine policy and criticized long-standing vaccination recommendations.

“In the past ... we were battling the diseases,” Bell said. “We were not battling this misinformation that is now coming from an entirely different stream that is within the federal government.”

 

IDEA Challenges

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

Ashley White at The Hill:

​​​A clear pathway for addressing these challenges can be seen in the Science of Reading Act, which seeks to align federal literacy funding with evidence-based practices “to ensure state literacy plans reflect these evidence-based approaches.” However, there is no “Science of Special Education” movement generating bipartisan legislation. There is no House committee unanimously passing a bill to strengthen IDEA’s core protections. Instead, there is silence — or worse, erosion.

States, meanwhile, are left holding the bag. Some have stepped up, investing state dollars to fill the federal gap. Others have not. The result is a patchwork of protections that varies wildly depending on where a child with a disability happens to live. This is precisely the inequity IDEA was designed to prevent. The staffing crisis compounds the challenge. Across the country, districts report critical shortages of special education teachers, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and related service providers. Caseloads have ballooned. Timelines for evaluations are missed. Individualized Education Programs are written but not implemented with fidelity. And in too many cases, the procedural protections that remain on paper have become aspirational rather than operational.

For families, the lived experience of special education in 2026 often feels like navigating a system designed to say no. Due process remains available in theory, but in practice, it is expensive, adversarial, and inaccessible to the families who need it most. The asymmetry of power between school districts and individual families has only grown as federal oversight has receded.

RFK Jr. v. HCBS

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. 

 Mike Hixenbaugh at NBC:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparked outrage among disability rights advocates with recent comments alleging widespread fraud in Medicaid programs that pay people to care for elderly or disabled family members — a system millions of Americans rely on to survive.

During testimony before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee last week, Kennedy criticized Medicaid-funded programs that pay relatives to serve as caregivers, alleging they compensate people for tasks they “used to do as family members for free.” That includes paying them “for balancing the checkbook, for picking up the groceries, for driving somebody to a doctor’s appointment,” he said.

“And this is rife with fraud,” Kennedy said, because the federal government has no way “to determine if they actually performed that duty or not.”

Video of the remarks quickly spread across social media, drawing a wave of angry responses from caregivers and disability rights advocates who said Kennedy trivialized the reality of caring for medically complex loved ones while conflating legitimate caregiving with illegal activity.

“That’s insulting,” said Kim Musheno, senior director of Medicaid policy at The Arc of the United States, a national disability rights organization. “It’s insulting to the families, and it’s insulting to the work that direct support professionals do for people.”

That work, advocates say, is far more complex than shuttling loved ones to doctor appointments.

...

More than 11 million Americans are paid through government programs to care for elderly or disabled family members, according to a recent study. Many are reimbursed through a suite of state-administered Medicaid programs known as home- and community-based services, which compensate both family members and professional caregivers to help people live safely at home.

 ...

[C]aregivers say Kennedy’s comments paint with too broad a brush and risk undermining services that millions depend on. Advocates also dispute the claim that there are no checks to ensure family caregivers are legitimate, noting that states typically require training, documentation of care and other oversight.

Medicaid home-care programs are already under strain. More than 600,000 disabled or elderly people are estimated to be on waitlists for services nationwide, and advocates say low pay and difficult working conditions have led to a chronic shortage of home-care workers.

In response to these pressures, which were amplified during the Covid pandemic, many states have expanded programs allowing family members to be paid caregivers — a shift backed by both Republicans and Democrats. In many parts of the country, especially rural areas, families say they cannot find workers with the skills to care for people with complex medical needs.

Medicaid Cuts

The Politics of Autism includes an extensive discussion of insurance and Medicaid services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  

 At KFF, Bram Sable-Smith and Andrew Jones report on Medicaid funding for applied behavior analysis:

Efforts to scale back come as state Medicaid programs have seen spending on the autism therapy balloon in recent years. Payments for the therapy in North Carolina, which were $122 million in fiscal year 2022, are projected to hit $639 million in fiscal 2026, a 423% increase. Nebraska saw a 1,700% jump in spending in recent years. Indiana saw a 2,800% rise.

Heightened awareness and diagnosis of autism means more families are seeking treatment for their children, which can range from 10 to 40 hours of services a week, according to Mariel Fernandez, vice president of government affairs at the Council of Autism Service Providers. The treatment is intensive: Comprehensive therapy can include 30-40 hours of direct treatment a week, while more focused therapy may still consist of 10-25 hours a week, according to guidelines released by the council.

It’s also a relatively recent coverage area for Medicaid. The federal government ordered states to cover autism treatments in 2014, but not all covered ABA, which Fernandez called the “gold standard,” until 2022.

State budget shortfalls and the nearly $1 trillion in looming Medicaid spending reductions from President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act have prompted state budget managers to trim the autism therapy and other growing line items in their Medicaid spending.

So, too, have a series of state and federal audits that raised questions about payments to some ABA providers. A federal audit of Indiana’s Medicaid program estimated at least $56 million in improper payments in 2019 and 2020, noting some providers had billed for excessive hours, including during nap time. A similar audit in Wisconsin estimated at least $18.5 million in improper payments in 2021 and 2022. In Minnesota, state officials had 85 open investigations into autism providers as of this summer, after the FBI raided two providers late last year as part of an investigation into Medicaid fraud.

Gutting OCR Will Worsen Inequality

In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  Inequality is a big part of the story. 

Lauren Coffey at EdSurge:

“Parents, educators and state administrators rely on ED [the Education Department] for a lot of help and technical assistance in making special education work,” she says. At the state level, “a lot are saying, ‘Where do we get the guidance to follow the law?’ [ED officials] have institutional knowledge you can't read from a textbook.”

With that confusion comes more complaints filed. Often, families file complaints within the school district or the state, before going to the federal Office for Civil Rights. They typically stem from violations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which guarantees individuals with disabilities have equal opportunities and rights, and the IDEA Act, which guarantees a “free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities.” A complaint could cover anything from a school not having wheelchair accessibility to a teacher not giving a student extra time to take an exam.

According to data from the Department of Education , over one-third of the complaints OCR handles are related to disabilities. That office was largely gutted in February and again in October. Hill, an attorney, expects parents will begin turning toward private lawyers as OCR will be unable to keep up with the deluge of complaints.

“I think there will be more problems; there just won't be anywhere to go with them,” Hill, a partner at law firm Brown, Goldstein and Levy, says. “Parents and kids will have complaints they need to file, but nowhere to file them. So, they'll go to private lawyers. But there are not enough of us, so people will end up having their educational rights taken away.”

Hiring private lawyers also requires time and money many do not have.

“Parents are taking out second mortgages on their homes just to get the rights for the child, but they can also take off from work to prep for the hearing and attend the hearing,” says David Bateman, a special education consultant and retired professor of special education at Shippensburg University. “Most don't have the money, nor flexibility.”

Early Start in Jeopardy

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss services for people with disabilities.

Kelly Keck at CalMatters:

This summer, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill, extending tax cuts but slashing billions from Medicaid. In California, federal Medicaid funds sustain the regional centers that coordinate Early Start services for infants and toddlers with — or at risk for — developmental delays.

With California facing a multibillion-dollar deficit, the future of such early interventions looks precarious. Losing federal support means the state must fill the funding gap or scale back, thus putting therapy, progress and hope at risk for countless children and families.

I’ve witnessed what happens when families lose access to care. When speech therapy disappears, a baby’s first words vanish into silence. When physical therapy stops, a toddler’s first steps may never come.

Early Start is not a luxury; it’s a bridge from surviving to thriving. When that connection is frayed, a child’s trajectory is altered, sometimes irreversibly.

The Department of Developmental Services has already warned that its caseloads are surging as staffing shortages worsen. Federal cuts will only amplify this with fewer therapists, longer waitlists and children stranded during the most critical period of their brain development.

Every week’s delay, every family told to “wait and see,” means consequences that may never be undone, developmental windows that will not reopen.

Gutting Civil Rights Enforcement

 Center for American Progress:

  In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential politics. 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.

Center for American Progress:

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which provides enforcement of civil rights protections, fielded a historic 22,687 cases, with 37 percent—8,457—relating to disability, which was second only to sex discrimination. The Trump administration attempted to lay off more than 250 OCR employees in March 2025. In April, Victim Rights Law Center, a nonprofit organization, filed a lawsuit against the department and was able to get a preliminary injunction to force the department to bring staff back. In August, the administration utilized the previously mentioned Supreme Court shadow docket decision made in July to obtain a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to finalize the OCR layoffs in October. With approximately 120 employees left, if cases remained consistent with last year, the office would have to manage almost 190 cases per employee. Larger caseloads could   In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential politics. 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.

Center for American Progress:

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which provides enforcement of civil rights protections, fielded a historic 22,687 cases, with 37 percent—8,457—relating to disability, which was second only to sex discrimination. The Trump administration attempted to lay off more than 250 OCR employees in March 2025. In April, Victim Rights Law Center, a nonprofit organization, filed a lawsuit against the department and was able to get a preliminary injunction to force the department to bring staff back. In August, the administration utilized the previously mentioned Supreme Court shadow docket decision made in July to obtain a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to finalize the OCR layoffs in October. With approximately 120 employees left, if cases remained consistent with last year, the office would have to manage almost 190 cases per employee. Larger caseloads could force slowdowns in cases that already can last for years.

Without Federal Oversight, Special Education Will Likely Deteriorate

  In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential politics. 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.

Anna Claire Vollers at Stateline:

The court ruling halting the layoffs is likely just a temporary setback as Trump proceeds with his broader mission of closing the federal department. Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have said their goals are to reduce bureaucracy and return more education responsibilities to the states.

Neither the Department of Education nor the White House, which are operating with fewer communications officers because of the government shutdown, responded to Stateline requests for comment.

Congress has never fully funded special education at 40% per-pupil costs promised to states under IDEA. Funding has fluctuated over the years; in 2024, it was about 10.9%. Federal IDEA funding is expected to continue, though without federal oversight from the Education Department.

Disability rights and education advocates worry that most states don’t have the resources — or, in some cases, the will — to adequately police and protect the rights of students with disabilities.

years have failed to provide adequate special education services, prompting investigation from the feds. Just 19 states meet the requirements for serving students with disabilities from ages 3 through 21, according to the most recent annual review from the Department of Education, released in June.

...
The federal government currently covers less than 12% of the costs of special education services nationwide, leaving state and local governments to foot the rest, according to the National Education Association, a labor union representing 3 million educators nationally. Without federal oversight, critics fear, nobody will hold states and school districts accountable for not spending enough.

In some states, limited state funding means a disproportionate financial burden lands on individual school districts. On average, local districts are responsible for $8,160 per special education student per year, according to a report released last year by education nonprofit Bellwether that studied funding across 24 states.

Consequences of Cuts

  In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential politics. 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.

Zachary Schermele at USA TODAY:

During her confirmation hearing in February, [Education Secretary Linda] McMahon agreed with several senators, including Hassan, about the need for special education services. While she suggested they could be better overseen by an agency other than hers, namely the Department of Health and Human Services, she still stressed that she "wanted to make sure that students with special education needs had those needs met," Hassan recalled.

 The education secretary continues to insist special education is a priority of hers. Still, [Sen. Maggie] Hassan said she feels lied to. "By taking the actions they have, it indicates to me that she wasn’t being truthful in her testimony," she said. "Or she didn’t understand the full scope of special education services."

...

Though the lion's share of IDEA funding was already disbursed this school year, nearly everyone in charge of its oversight and administration was laid off, USA TODAY has reported. More than 120 workers were let go from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Education Department stated in recently-filed court documents. Should states or schools have issues in the coming weeks and months drawing down the money they need, they'll be turning to staffers whose jobs are now in legal limbo.

Same goes for schools that have questions about the technicalities of IDEA, or, in many cases, parents looking to file a civil rights complaint. Nearly 140 employees in the Office for Civil Rights were fired, too. (Most investigations in that office are about disability-related discrimination.)

Slashing the Special Ed Office: Long-Term Impact

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential politics. 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.

Linda Jacobson at The 74:

Officials often “moved slowly and allowed noncompliance to continue for too long,” said Callie Oettinger, an advocate in Virginia. There are some parents, she said, who have no problem with federal employees losing their jobs.

“At the same time, they’re terrified because, as problematic as some staff members were, they did more than the states,” she said. “It’s a case of be careful of what you ask for.”

It took federal officials, she said, to force Texas in 2017 to lift an arbitrary cap on the number of students receiving special education services. The limit meant that schools often denied special education services to students with autism, ADHD and epilepsy or offered cheaper accommodations. Gov. Greg Abbott blamed teachers, while educators insisted they were following the Texas Education Agency’s instructions to identify fewer students for special instruction.

“Can you imagine Texas without OSEP’s monitoring?” Oettinger asked. “Not even major investigations by the Houston Chronicle and others, which made the noncompliance public, resulted in the state making its own changes.”

The special education office often works hand-in-hand with the Office for Civil Rights when schools violate student rights. In fact, despite the investigations that make the news, nearly 70% of the complaints OCR handles are related to disability, said Beth Gellman-Beer, co-founder of Evergreen Education Solutions, a consulting firm, and a former regional director for OCR’s Philadelphia office.

One OCR attorney who received a layoff notice said she’s “deeply concerned” about how the potential layoffs could affect students.

“The mass elimination of OCR offices that have over 25,000 open cases leaves those complainants without any recourse, let alone answers as to if their case will move forward,” she said. She asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “States are not prepared to handle these concerns.”

Judge Pauses the Attack on Special Ed

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential politics. 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.

 Zachary Schermele at USA Today:

A federal judge on Wednesday, Oct. 15, temporarily paused the U.S. Department of Education's decision to lay off nearly everyone in its special education division.

Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California issued the ruling, which applies to both the Education Department firings as well as thousands of others that swept through the federal workforce over the weekend.

In a court hearing, Illston blasted the White House, accusing President Donald Trump of using the government shutdown for political reasons.

"It's very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs," she said. "It's a human cost that cannot be tolerated."

...

[Secretary of Education Linda McMahon] suggested that no education funding, including money for special education programs, will be impacted by the new layoffs. Yet nearly every person in charge of administering billions of dollars through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was fired, a staffer previously told USA TODAY.

Before the temporary restraining order was issued Wednesday, the Education Department firings weren't scheduled to fully take effect for about two months.

Trump's Attack on Special Ed

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential politics. 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.

Eric Garcia at MSNBC:

Over the weekend, the Trump administration fired almost all employees in the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. The mass dismissals were part of President Donald Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought’s attempts to pressure Democrats to cave to their demands, as the government shutdown continues. The firings also fit neatly with Trump’s track record on these issues. Throughout his career, Trump has shown little regard for people with disabilities. As president, he has sought to abolish the Department of Education and tapped Linda McMahon, a former WWE executive with scant experience in education, to neuter the department.

The administration’s decision to remove almost all personnel for the special education office is not just a betrayal of students with disabilities. It also is the final nail in the coffin for Republican support of the idea that people with disabilities can and should access public education so that they can empower themselves and live a fulfilling life.

From the Autism Society:

A broad coalition of national, state, and local disability, civil rights, and education organizations is sounding the alarm over sweeping layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education. These cuts have gutted key offices—including the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE)—threatening decades of progress in protecting students with disabilities.

These wholesale terminations place fundamental education laws in peril and place millions of children with disabilities at risk who receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Title IV of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. These layoffs circumvent the will of Congress and dismantle 50 years of precedent upholding rights for students with disabilities. Without personnel to oversee these laws, the Department cannot provide essential leadership, oversight, guidance, or support to states and schools—jeopardizing students’ access to a free, appropriate public education and hampering the ability of states and localities to serve all students. In addition, the terminations also threaten the vocational rehabilitation system that helps youth and adults with disabilities become employed.

Gutting the Special Ed Office

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential politics. 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.

Cory Turner at NPR:

According to sources, all staff in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), with the exception of a handful of top officials and support staff, were cut in Friday's RIF. The office is the central nervous system for programs that support students with disabilities, not only offering guidance to families but providing monitoring and oversight of states to make sure they're complying with the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Lisa Lightner:

What does this mean? 

• Staff responsible for IDEA oversight, state guidance, and enforcement are gone.
• Many of the technical assistance centers and discretionary grant programs OSEP manages are now unfunded or leaderless.
• Parent centers and state agencies that rely on OSEP for compliance answers? Emails are bouncing and phones are ringing to no one. (I too, tried emailing some contacts there and it bounced back)The message is clear: OSEP wasn’t restructured. It was erased.

Without OSEP, there’s no one left at the federal level to ensure your school is following the law. No one to oversee FAPE. No one to push back when a district cuts services. And no, this isn’t a drill. It’s happening now.

What This Means for Parents and Teachers — TODAY

You know all those rights you’ve read about in IDEA?

There’s no one left to enforce them.

Fewer protections for your child’s IEP

OSEP was the agency that:

• Issued guidance letters explaining your rights
• Clarified gray areas in IDEA
• Investigated when states or districts broke the law

Now? That accountability structure is collapsing. If your school refuses services or ignores an IEP… there’s no one federally overseeing that anymore.