Their kids rely on special education. Trump's cuts have them on edge. Erin Mansfield, USA TODAYOctober 20, 2025 at 3:01 AM 0 Angela Powell had few options left before deciding to pull her autistic son from a traditional public school.
- - Their kids rely on special education. Trump's cuts have them on edge.
Erin Mansfield, USA TODAYOctober 20, 2025 at 3:01 AM
0
Angela Powell had few options left before deciding to pull her autistic son from a traditional public school.
The Tennessee mother said her son wasn't getting the services he was entitled to, even in the state's wealthiest district. Now she teaches him at home.
"A lot of families can't do what we did," she said. "And a lot of families in Tennessee can't send their children to private school, either."
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA, is supposed to ensure children with disabilities receive instruction in the least restrictive environment possible, often alongside their peers without disabilities. But in practice, staffing and funding challenges can sometimes prevent that.
Enforcement of IDEA often is the stick some families need to ensure their children receive proper services from their local school districts. But parents of children with disabilities are on edge after President Donald Trump's administration laid off a significant part of the Department of Education office that administers and enforces the law. A judge has temporarily paused the layoffs.
The Education Department has been silent on why it laid off 121 people from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, according to a court filing. The office allocates funding and enforces the IDEA, the law that facilitates accommodations for 7.5 million kids with disabilities. The office had 179 people in September 2024, the latest available number, which does not include any layoffs or buyouts that came earlier this year.
More: For students with disabilities, what's the difference between IEPs and 504 plans?
Additionally, the Education Department laid off 137 people in the office that enforces civil rights laws, including handling complaints about disability discrimination; 132 people in an office dedicated to elementary and secondary school, including supporting equal access for students; 64 people in a key higher ed office; 7 people in the communications department; and 4 people in the secretary's office.
"No education funding is impacted by the (layoffs), including funding for special education, and the clean (funding bill) supported by the Trump Administration will provide states and schools the funding they need to support all students," Linda McMahon, the secretary of the Education Department, said in a statement Oct. 15.
Denise Marshall, the CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, called it "disingenuous" to say the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services is still open with only a handful of people on staff.
"There's no way they can fulfill their obligations under the law with such a skeleton crew," she said. "We can't even get answers from them."
And the state of education for students with disabilities is already tenuous: As of June, only 19 states were fully compliant with the requirements under the IDEA to serve kids between ages 3 and 21, according to the Education Department. The majority of states have had shortfalls for two or more years.
More: Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says
1 / 15After Trump layoffs, Education Department workers pack up officesA U.S. Department of Education worker acknowledges a crowd of supporters after leaving the Department of Education building on March 28, 2025. President Trump signed an executive order attempting to eliminate the U.S. Education Department on March 20, 2025. Congress would ultimately need to approve a closure of the Education Department, but Trump's workforce reduction will shrink it.In Tennessee, funding isn't always the issue
That includes Tennessee, where Powell and her family live in Brentwood in Williamson County, just south of Nashville. The Department of Education said for two years in a row that the state "needs assistance" to implement the requirements of the IDEA. Even in the state's best-funded school district is falling short, parents say.
Powell said that with her son, now 13, the school kept calling to say he needed to be picked up from school because of behavioral issues. Eventually, they required him to stay home and get visits from a teacher a couple hours a week.
More: For this senator, Trump's special ed layoffs are personal amid shutdown showdown
A student at Walter H. Dyett High School walks through the hallway in Chicago, Illinois, in this photo taken on October 5, 2012. The bipartisan education reform movement sweeping the nation calls for rating schools by their students' test scores and then taking drastic steps to overhaul the worst performers by firing the teachers, turning the schools over to private management or shutting them down altogether. But in communities across the United States, anger at school closures is rising. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES - Tags: EDUCATION)
"It's used widely for children with behavioral escalations," Powell said. "It's just one way of them taking care of the problem in schools — to keep the child home but still receive the funding for having a child in public school."
Jolene Sharp, a mother of two whose daughter receives special education in 7th grade in Brentwood, has seen the challenges first hand.
"Because there's no official communication, it's very hard to know exactly what's going on, and the concern with that is it's hard to know what's the plan for fulfilling the obligations of the department," she said.
Sharp is satisfied with the team who works with her daughter, but said the school has struggled to staff all of its positions. At the beginning of 6th grade, she said, there was an unfilled position in the special education classroom, so a coordinator performed the duties on top of her other job.
"We spent the first half — at least — of sixth grade just trying to manage through the chaos that that created for her — to the point that she was running out of the building because she was so overwhelmed and she was so frustrated," Sharp said.
Williamson County Schools did not reply to USA TODAY's request for comment by deadline. USA TODAY also reached out to the Tennessee Department of Education.
The exterior of Florence B. Price Public School is seen in Chicago, Illinois, in this photo taken on October 5, 2012. The bipartisan education reform movement sweeping the nation calls for rating schools by their students' test scores and then taking drastic steps to overhaul the worst performers by firing the teachers, turning the schools over to private management or shutting them down altogether. But in communities across the United States, anger at school closures is rising. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES - Tags: EDUCATION)Families see inconsistencies among states, districts
Courtney Hansen, of LaPorte, Colorado, is a mother of three who has put her 13-year-old son with Down syndrome in public schools in five different states. They moved sometimes because the military was transferring her husband, but also to find the best schools.
Hansen said she had good experiences in Nebraska and Ohio, two of the 19 states that met expectations under the IDEA this year. Hansen had concerns about specific school districts in Washington that were segregating kids, so she found a district that integrated children with disabilities.
In Idaho, she was so unhappy with her son's school that they left after a week. On her way out, she filed a complaint with the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights and went to journalists to raise concerns about the school. The district closed the school at the end of the 2024 school year, citing issues related to enrollment, building age, and budget.
USA TODAY left a message for the superintendent of Moscow School District in Idaho seeking comment.
Hansen's family now chooses to live in a district in northern Colorado instead of a district closer to her husband's job in southern Wyoming. The Education Department ranked Colorado as "needs assistance" for two or more years, similar to Tennessee.
"We actually have a pretty good experience, and when I say a pretty good experience here … that still means that every day I'm putting out very small fires," she said.
Jake Fishbein, a father of three who runs an app to help parents navigate plans for their children with disabilities, lives in Washington, D.C.
The Education Department said in June the district "needs intervention" to meet the requirements of IDEA — the lowest rating given to states and territories in 2025. And in March, the department announced it was investigating DC Public Schools after another inquiry found it had more special education-related complaints per 10,000 students than any other state or territory.
Jake Fishbein, a father of three who lives in Washington, D.C., is seen in a provided photo.
Fishbein's 14-year-old daughter is on an Individualized Education Program in Maryland, one of the 19 states that met requirements this year. His 3-year-old and 5-year-old go to DC Public Schools.
Fishbein, who taught in urban schools for 15 years, said the federal government's job is to help bridge the divide between the schools that are meeting standards and the ones that aren't.
But he said if the federal government reduces its role in disability services, then the quality of the education — and parents' ability to advocate — will depend entirely on where a child lives.
"If I happen to live in Maryland or I happen to live in Tennessee, my ability to advocate as a parent is entirely dependent on those laws if there's no federal oversight to guarantee what's there for my family," he said.
'Talk the autism and ADHD out of him'
Alexis Rhodes, of Knoxville, Tennessee, knows all about that advocacy.
She said she wishes she could go back to work, but spends the majority of her time advocating to make sure her 3rd grader gets what he's entitled to in his individualized education plan that accommodates his ADHD, dyslexia, and autism.
She said he's supposed to get additional time on tests and have the questions presented to him in chunks instead of full pages so he doesn't get visually overwhelmed.
But on Oct. 13, she said his math teacher didn't honor that, and the school called to notify her of behavioral problems she said were caused by him feeling overwhelmed and upset.
USA TODAY reached out to Knox County Schools for comment.
"I don't think without me pushing further they're going to give him this extra time," Rhodes said. "They send me these emails like they expect I can sit my child down and talk the autism and ADHD out of him for a day, and that's obviously not the case."
Contributing: Zachary Schermele
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump cuts spark fear for parents of special education students
Source: "AOL General News"
Source: Astro Blog
Full Article on Source: Astro Blog
#LALifestyle #USCelebrities