Karma Quick-Panwala had an Individualized Education Program (IEP) from kindergarten through high school. She believes that having an IEP was the difference between her getting through a class and graduating with honors and scholarships to four-year universities. An IEP is a legal document written for students with disabilities that outlines their needs and goals, including any accommodations or supports they require.
“There are so many students for whom the IDEA and having that IEP has been just critical to their ability to go to school every day,” Quick-Panwala says. “And not just to go to school and be present physically, but to actually learn and make progress in their education.”
Today, Quick-Panwala is the children and family advocacy services director for the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. But now, the 30-year veteran of the disability rights movement has had to come face-to-face with the fact that the country is turning its back on the more than eight million children with disabilities.
This fall, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) turned 50. The Trump administration marked the anniversary by gutting the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the agency that develops and implements policies that impact persons with disabilities and their families; in October, 121 of the 135 staff members received reduction-in-force notices.
Congress passed the groundbreaking special education law in 1975 with bipartisan support. By establishing the practice of writing IEPs for students, the IDEA helps states protect the rights and meet the needs of young Americans with disabilities and their families. Public schools could no longer refuse to admit or fail to educatestudents with disabilities, as was standard practice prior to 1975. OSERS oversees three other offices, including the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), which administers the IDEA funding to states.
Advocates fear that American attitudes about disabled people and the failure to provide comprehensive systems of support are the principal barriers that people with disabilities face.
“It is very scary to take a look at what has been happening in the last year, both to the Department of Education that provides the oversight and enforcement of the IDEA and the potential loss of some funding,” Quick-Panwala says.
To achieve the overarching goal of getting rid of the Department of Education, Project 2025 proposed redistributing its responsibilities to other government agencies. President Trump has adopted these recommendations. Last month, the administration announced that most Department of Education funding for K-12 schools would now be distributed by the Department of Labor.
Buried in the education policy section of the GOP’s blueprint is the IDEA restructuring plan: The agency’s funds would not be funneled through the Labor Department. Instead, those dollars would be allocated directly to local education agencies by the Administration for Community Living, a Department of Health and Human Services agency.
Quick-Panwala worries that the move means the Trump administration intends to medicalize special education. Disability advocates fear that American attitudes about disabled people and the failure to provide comprehensive systems of support—not the disabilities themselves—are the principal barriers that people with disabilities face in their daily lives.
“From the public-health and the medical perspective, many disabilities are largely parts of the body that must be cured, or hidden away, or not recognized, and there’s certainly a lack of understanding of how to support and encourage support and progress of people with disabilities in society,” Quick-Panwala says.
She adds that without federal scrutiny by OSERS and other Department of Education agencies, some states could return to ignoring the right that these students have to education. “For example, the state of Texas for over 15 years [from 2004 to 2016] capped the number of students eligible for special education at 8.5 percent,” she says. “That is contrary to the requirements of the IDEA.”
A National Education Association (NEA) spokesperson told the Prospect that, specifically, there are concerns that a few Republican states plan to look for opportunities to take advantage of weaker federal oversight and devise their own interpretations of what they believe services for students with disabilities should be, as opposed to what federal law mandates.
The federal special education agencies also help clarify parental rights. Parents of students with disabilities advocate for their children by providing valuable insights into their behavioral and medical needs. Without OSERS, parents and school districts will have no central resource to go to for guidance.
Another set of serious problems predates the Trump administration rollbacks: Federal special education agencies haven’t been fully funded. After the IDEA became law, the federal government committed to covering 40 percent of the additional costs needed to educate all students with disabilities. According to the NEA, the IDEA has never been funded close to 40 percent (funding peaked in 2005 at 18.5 percent).
For example, IDEA funding in the 2025 fiscal year budget, $14.4 billion, is only a fraction of the cost of educating students with disabilities. The NEA tracks the gaps in funding, with the federal government owing some states, including California, Florida, and Texas, well over $1 billion.
“IDEA is bipartisan and has been very popular. Nonetheless, it requires appropriators to find the money. And at the time, they thought, maybe that’s not such a big deal. But they’ve never accomplished it,” says the NEA spokesperson.
This leaves quite a bit of uncertainty. According to Quick-Panwala, it would be illegal for the Trump administration to cut IDEA funding and funnel funding through another federal department without an act of Congress.
If the Trump administration follows its current pattern of sidestepping regulations, Quick-Panwala says the likely response would be new litigation and an effort to pressure Congress to respond. However, if Congress decides to cut funding or is pressured by the White House to do so, there would be little the states could do.
Some states, like California, Washington, and Illinois, allocate state funds for special education services. But states rely heavily on federal money, so any cuts would have major impacts. In September, the Department of Education terminated funding for four California special education teacher training programs that were supported by IDEA competitive grants. The state lost roughly $3.5 million. The reason? DEI.
Savannah Newhouse, the Department of Education’s press secretary, told Education Week in September that grant materials using phrases like “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” “cultural humility,” and “systemic racism” were flagged for cancellation. About 60 percent of students with IEPs spend 80 percent or more of their time in a general education classroom. Funding cuts leave general education teachers without the access to the training or the resources to best accommodate and support these students.
Fifty years ago, students with disabilities faced an unregulated nightmare. Their rights were constantly violated. The IDEA ensures that these students are educated and treated fairly within the American education system. Without federal dollars and oversight, states may be forced to limit or even end the services that students need to receive the education they are entitled to.