Congress must act immediately to reinstate the Department of Education’s special education staff, nearly all of whom were laid off last week. These professionals are the backbone of the Office for Special Education Programs, which oversees $15 billion in federal support for 7.5 million students with disabilities. Their abrupt dismissal cripples the federal government’s ability to uphold the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and safeguard the rights of infants, children, and youth with disabilities.
This isn’t just a bureaucratic reshuffle—it’s a moral failure. Targeting programs for children with disabilities is cruel and callous, especially from a regime that once claimed to be a champion for those same families. Parents struggling to ensure their children receive a fair education now face a federal government that has abandoned them.
It’s clear these cuts are part of a political strategy to punish the public during the shutdown and shift blame elsewhere. But Americans see through it. The people responsible for this decision are millionaires and billionaires who have no idea what these families endure. Meanwhile, the Trump regime found room for a $20 billion loan to Argentina while dismantling protections for children with disabilities.
Congress must intervene now: restore every special education position, fund these offices fully, and ensure no administration can again use a shutdown to gut civil rights obligations. Disabled children and their families deserve better than this cruelty disguised as cost-cutting.
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