Staff cuts at the Education Department have become a concern for parents of children with disabilities as well as teachers across the United States.
The changes in the department are expected to make the process of parents advocating for their children much more difficult. When a parent believes that their kids are not receiving proper services or school accommodations for a disability, they can seek remedies from their district.
Education Department Staff Cuts
They are allowed to file complaints with their respective states and argue that their children's rights have been taken away without due process of law. They are also able to pursue litigation in state or federal courts.
Typically, these processes involve several sessions with hearing officers who are not required to be experts in disability law. There are also legal fees that could cost parents thousands of dollars for just a single case that should be taken into consideration.
Dan Stewart, the managing attorney for education and employment at the National Disability Rights Network, said that filing a complaint does not require or typically involve lawyers. However, advocates have argued that this option seems increasingly out of reach, according to NBC Washington.
The Education Department has had its workforce reduced by roughly half under United States President Donald Trump's administration. The affected staff include those in the Office for Civil Rights, whose attorneys are responsible for investigating complaints of discrimination against children with disabilities.
The employees have reportedly been directed to prioritize antisemitism cases instead, which means that the more than 20,000 pending cases have sat idle after Trump took office. While a freeze on processing the cases was lifted earlier this month, advocates question the department's capabilities to make progress with fewer employees.
Effect on Teachers
Stewart noted that the staff cuts are an "evisceration" of the Office for Civil Rights' investigatory authority and responsibility. He added that there was no way that it would be able to keep up with the backlog and incoming complaints, Time reported.
Following the staff cuts at the Education Department, Tara Kini, chief of policy and programs at the Learning Policy Institute argued that they would have "huge impacts" on teachers. She referenced the loss of federal money that previously went to funding teacher training programs as being one of the worst developments.
She added that the grants being stopped will result in fewer teachers being trained, particularly for subject areas that are considered high-need and have shortages across the nation, as per ABC News.
