Mass layoffs in a U.S. Education Department office will burden special ed parents, advocate says

The Trump Administration on Friday announced another round of layoffs. It appears to have essentially gutted the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, within the U.S. Department of Education.

This is the office tasked with making sure students with disabilities get an appropriate education and that states are following the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act.

That law, among other provisions, requires states to provide special education services to students up to age 21.

Lori Bird is an attorney with more than two decades of experience in education and special education law in Arizona. She joined The Show to talk about what the layoffs at OSERS could mean for special ed students and their families.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Which students are we talking about here in terms of special education services?

LORI BIRD: So we’re talking about a broad range of students. These are students who, by virtue of their disability, have been found to need specially designed instruction. These are students who may have ADHD, they may have autism, an intellectual disability, an emotional disability. So we’re talking about quite a few students. This is not a small population.

BRODIE: And what is the impact of all of these federal employees in this office — that kind of oversaw what the states were doing — losing their jobs? 

BIRD: So The OSERS, through its Office of Special Education Programming, performed a variety of functions. They monitored the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA. So they monitored the state’s implementation, the programming, how they oversaw and provided compliance oversight down to the school district level. They gathered data and interpreted that data to see how states were faring in terms of providing successful programming for students and that students were being successful.

It was fiscal management as well, that the funds were allocated and utilized appropriately, and then that there were dispute resolution options in place by the state so that when parents had an issue or a dispute with their local school district, there was a mechanism by which that could be made right.

BRODIE: So given the fact that those employees did all of those things, does that kind of render the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act like, toothless? Is there still an enforcement mechanism there if that law is being violated? 

BIRD: So, yes, there is an enforcement mechanism still available. The IDEA, at the individual student level, has really always been set up where the parent felt or believed that their student wasn’t getting what we call a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.

Any time a parent or a guardian felt that that student wasn’t getting what they were entitled to under the IDEA, they had what they call procedural safeguards or a variety of options. They could file a state complaint with the state. One of the things that OSEP made sure the states had a robust state complaint system in place. They could go to mediation. or they could file for due process.

And those systems, and making sure that they were working, was one of the critical components that OSEP was doing. But parents have always had recourse, and they still have recourse. The IDEA has not been repealed, and to my knowledge, the grant funding that flows to the states, the small percentage that the federal government provides, is still flowing to the states.

The question is, with virtually no employees there, how efficient is that going to be? And the reality is, without funds we lose programming. And you can complain all you want, but if the resources aren’t there, students are going to get shortchanged.

BRODIE: Well I guess maybe that’s the question then, because as you say, if parents can still file a complaint, but if there’s no one to hear it, for example, or if the money is still coming, but there’s really no one to sort of oversee how the states are operating, it sounds like this could potentially have pretty significant implications for these students who rely on these programs. 

BIRD: I believe it could have significant implications, and it’s gonna be a ripple effect. You might not see at the school-based level for your individual student, you might see no immediate impact. But as we get down to state budgeting, as we get down to prioritizing and allocating resources for this population, for special education students, you may see accountability becoming far less, and then you also have a piecemeal approach.

So we have one system in Arizona that the federal government was making sure was in compliance with federal law. Well, if there’s no one for that accountability piece, you could have one system in one state, one system in another state, and you get a very piecemeal special education system. And people are very mobile right now. But students’ rights still exist. It’s where will the accountability come from? Despite what may be the good intentions of many, many people within the system, good intentions aren’t the same as compliance with the law.

BRODIE: Well, so I’m curious what you are hearing from parents, from families with whom you’ve worked or maybe who are calling you for the first time, because it sounds like there could potentially be a good amount of confusion. It’s not such a stretch if I’m a parent in this situation, to hear that all these workers have been let go to think, “Oh, well, I guess special education is gone now, too.”

BIRD: And I think that’s the prevailing sentiment. When we deprioritize whole groups of people and essentially tell them they’re not important, it is a reasonable reaction to think that they are going to become even more marginalized, right?

What parents are panicking about is they don’t understand the system. We’ve actually set up a fairly complicated system for special education. And then we’ve said to the parent, and now parent, you’re essentially the enforcement mechanism — not for the system, but for your individual student.

BRODIE: For your child

BIRD: And so there are parents who believe that their child’s IEP (individual education program) is going to disappear. Currently, that is not true. There are parents who believe that all of the funding is going to go away. That is not true. The federal government provides only a small piece of funding for special education. They believe that their related services will be cut: their speech, their (occupational therapy), things their children rely on. None of that is currently true.

You still have as a parent, and your child still has the right to a free and appropriate public education. However, the burden, the weight that we’ve now put on you, parent or guardian, to make sure that the system is working for your student has gotten much greater. But there is a tiny bit of good news.

BRODIE: I think for folks in that situation, they will take it, right?

BIRD: So the good news is in Arizona and around the country, there are organizations that parents can access mostly free of charge. In Arizona, we have Encircle Families, it used to be Raising Special Kids, and Disability Rights Arizona. So please utilize your supports and your resources because this is going to be difficult to navigate.