Betsy DeVos Given Power to Waive Special Education While Schools Are Closed

Evil Betsy DeVos may attempt to advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to pull back protections for students with disabilities.  Seriously.  We absolutely can not allow our special education law to be waived and must protect students’ rights. 

Tucked away in the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization bill is a provision that allows Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to seek congressional approval to waive parts of the federal special education law while schools combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Schools are scrambling to shift classes online as more than 55 million children stay at home.  For now, that has upended special education, which is administered through meticulously devised plans called Individualized Education Programs, or I.E.P.s, which require extensive services that are not easily transferred to the internet.... a range of support, such as tutoring and behavioral assistance, hands-on services like physical and occupational therapy, and specialized staff. 

Children in special education need lawmakers to fight for them including fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). Congress can’t let DeVos use a public health crisis to undermine the IDEA.

The stimulus bill provision gave Ms. DeVos 30 days to submit recommendations for any waivers from the law she believes are necessary. Angela Morabito, an Education Department spokeswoman, said the department was reviewing the congressional request, “and will respond as appropriate.”

Civil rights organizations say Ms. DeVos does not need to waive provisions to meet that commitment, and doing so could have unintended consequences.

“You’re taking a temporary disadvantage and making it permanent because it will be hard to recoup that learning loss,” said Miriam A. Rollin, the director of the Education Civil Rights Alliance at the National Center for Youth Law. “It really is opening a whole Pandora’s box.”

In a letter, the National Urban League, The Education Trust and other groups said waiver authority for IDEA was “unnecessary.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/politics/special-education-coronavirus.html