Disability Rights Watch

Tag: OSERS

  • Week 45-46 Updates

    1. HHS to remove recommendation for infant Hepatitis B vaccine, Trump asks RFK to fast-track a revamp of entire childhood vaccine schedule. The majority of Hepatitis B patients who go on to experience chronic liver disease or liver failure are infants.

      While vaccines should still be available for families that want them, these changes will cause confusion, spread misinformation, and give insurance companies the option of whether to pay for them.

      They also leave babies too young for the shots and other immunocompromised folks vulnerable as the nation loses its herd immunity and previously eradicated diseases return.
    2. McMahon requests some fired Office of Civil Rights workers return to work at DoEd after seeing overwhelming level of civil rights complaints. 260 OCR employees were recalled to help deal with the backlog, which was already large before March’s mass layoffs.

      The firing of other DoEd workers, like those in OSERS, was also supposed to be reversed after the government shutdown ended, but there are conflicting reports about whether those employees have actually returned to work or were put on paid administrative leave.
    3. Trump Administration releases list of “banned” words from Head Start grant programs. The six-page list invalidating grant applications for the education program includes the words disabilities, Black, women, and others.

      In addition to being an important lifeline for young children and their families in meeting basic food, hygiene, and education needs, Head Start programs are extremely cost-effective. Each dollar spent in early intervention for a disabled or delayed child saves over $200 in supports later. The ACLU is in the process of filing suit.
    4. Americans brace for 2026 Medicaid cuts and skyrocketing healthcare premiums for all as Biden’s ACA subsidies expire. Overall, already high insurance costs are predicted to rise by about 26%, while folks buying care on the marketplace will see their premiums more than double as subsidies expire.

      Medicaid cuts in the form of reduced retroactive coverage for past medical bills, stricter eligibility, work, and immigration status requirements, more frequent eligibility reviews, and less funding for state expansion programs, are also kicking in next year.
    5. Palantir, the surveillance contractor co-founded by anti-democracy billionaire Peter Theil, and used by ICE and the Pentagon, has been embedded into the Dept. of Ed. With a potential contract of up to 61 billion dollars, the highly secretive company will allegedly monitor “foreign influence” specifically in university funding.
    6. Related service providers report some immigrant families are opting out of early intervention, speech, and OT services for their disabled children, fearing ICE repercussions. Families report distrust of the government, or logos and insignia on government caseworkers’ cars and clothing similar to ICE, as reasons they’re opting out of or no longer requesting services for their disabled children. Similar trends in avoiding medical care and early childhood education were observed earlier in the year.

      ICE has continued to show particular cruelty and ignored special protections supposedly in place for the disabled, elderly, and pregnant people throughout their run of arbitrary detainment.
    7. Trump uses the “r-word” in a tirade against MN Governor Tim Walz on social media, prompting an explosion of use among MAGA followers. (Musk had previously revitalized the slur amongst his neo-nazi followers on X.) The Walz family reports people driving by their family home and shouting the slur at Gus, Tim Walz’s disabled son.

      For anyone familiar with Trump’s past behavior, this comes as no surprise–he mocked a disabled reporter while running for election the first time, said disabled people like his nephew should just “go die,” and has been a stalwart supporter of ableist and eugenicist policy, especially since taking office for the second time.

  • Weeks 43-44 Updates

    1. Trump and McMahon further dismantle Department of Education, moving programs to Department of Labor, Interior, and HHS. The relocated programs include Title 1, teacher training grants, English learner programs, TRIO, adult education, Native education, foreign language programs, foreign med-school accreditation, and student-parent grants.

      The move of programs along with DoEd’s press release touting an increased focus on vocational training and workplace preparedness, suggests a dangerous shift for pubic education. Students deserve a robust education no matter their income bracket, geographic locations, etc. Disabled students at Title 1 or Native education programs will likely be intersectionally harmed without DoED oversight.

      The increased focus on workplace and vocational language and placement is particularly concerning with respect to the Trump administration’s rollback of many child labor laws earlier in the year.

      Special education will stay within DoED for now, though it is unclear what work or oversight is happening due to the firing of OSERS employees during the shutdown, who have not been reinstated. Project 2025 also proposes eventually carving up special education to be moved to Department of Labor and HHS.
    2. Many students in health and education professionals will face issues securing federal loans due to graduate degree reclassification. The government proposed a cap on Graduate Plus loans for all but a very small number of “professional degrees” this week. Previously, graduate degrees in fields like Education, Nursing, Social Work, Public Health, Occupational Physical and Speech Therapy, Audiology, Counseling, Engineering and others were eligible for an extended $200,000 cap on federal loans.

      Without access to funding, only the wealthy will be able to access graduate level degrees in a variety of fields, many of which are already experiencing staffing shortages. Healthcare and education fields also tend to be women and/or BIPOC-dominated; the goal of lessening of women’s employment outside the home was outlined in Project 2025.
    3. RFK Jr. orders CDC to include false information about vaccines and autism on official website, despite previous walk-backs of his claims. The changes came to the website late this week, and mark another dangerous shift in ableist and eugenic rhetoric by the department, further hampering the public’s access to quality, evidence-based scientific health information.

      The US is already on the precipice of losing its measles-free designation within the next several months due to antivax rhetoric and fearmongering.
    4. Despite government reopening and multiple court orders, many SNAP/EBT recipients still have not received November benefits, as USDA threatens to “completely deconstruct” the program and/or force everyone to reapply.
      Many of the Democratic politicians who voted in favor of ending the government shutdown cited concern about the illegal withholding of SNAP benefits, but that has continued in the days since. Some states blame a software glitch, while other delays are unspecified. Governors also reported LIHEAP (subsidies for heating and cooling homes) and Head Start delays.

      The Secretary of the USDA also released a frightening proposal about how to revamp the program to decrease expenses and prevent “fraud.” However, most SNAP fraud is related to identity theft, card cloning, or retailer-application fraud, not recipients receiving aid who don’t need it.
    5. Local: Abortion is now illegal in North Dakota, carrying a five year prison sentence. The state’s Supreme Court reversed another judge’s decision Friday, upholding the ban.

      12 other states also currently have abortion bans at all stages of pregnancy.

      Reproductive rights are a healthcare and disability justice issue, just as forcible sterilization, remains a concern for disabled people across the US. (It’s still legal to forcibly sterilize a disabled person in 31 states and DC, and the US Supreme Court case allowing it has never been overturned.) Fair reproductive healthcare is for everybody.
    6. Trump revives first-term policy penalizing legal residents’ use of Medicaid or other assistant programs. The proposal suggests legally present, documented immigrants should not be penalized and not allowed to continue their path to permanent residency or citizenship if they have used Medicaid or other assistance programs.

      This was a first-term policy that was ignored and then officially rescinded by Biden in 2022. The policy will give more power to immigration officers to make judgement calls on who might “burden” the US.

      In actuality, healthcare professionals say it will burden the hospital system for all, as people will not be able to access preventative care and will have to turn to emergency rooms instead in order to see a doctor or get medication. DHS is accepting public comment on the change for the next 30 days.

  • Weeks 34+35

    1. Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends calls for the mass murder of unhoused people. The discussion, about how to handle growing populations of unhoused people, especially those who are mentally ill, Kilmeade said we should “just kill them” using “involuntary lethal injection.” Unhoused people often have a disability or mental illness, and Kilmeade spoke emphatically about his idea to kill them all in the context of discussion about a murder committed by an unhoused man in North Carolina.

      He later apologized, but kept his job.

      (In contrast, Karen Attiah of the Washington Post was fired for her social media comments on the rhetoric of the late Charlie Kirk, and Jimmy Kimmel was removed from the air “indefinitely” for criticizing MAGA response to Kirk’s death. In the latter, the head of the FCC got directly involved by pressuring the network to remove Kimmel, then attempting to extort a “meaningful personal donation” to far-right organizations should he seek to return on-air. )
    2. The Trump administration continues to push arguments that IUDs and birth control pills are actually abortions. The administration used the argument as a pretext to cancel a USAID family planning program and destroy millions in birth control, and has floated attempts to employ reasoning domestically. Pro-choice advocates have warned about this as an an administrative goal since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
    3. The last of the NIH’s communications and policy specialists are being eliminated. These are the experts who take highly scientific and technical knowledge and make sure it is transparent and understandable for healthcare workers and the general public. Without access to the NIH’s vast work in medical research, RFK Jr. and other anti-science leaders will be able to more easily make and spread false claims, and subsequent policy changes.
    4. The Department of Ed makes millions in Special Ed cuts, citing anti-DEIA. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) pulled 25 grants from IDEA-related programs worth nearly $15 million. The Rehabilitation Services Office also canceled 9 disability related grants. The grants supported special ed teacher training, community parent resource centers, brail and interpreter training, and services for DeafBlind children and adults.

      Programs across 16 states will be impacted, and the cuts begin October 1st. In a letter sent to the affected programs, the administration said the cuts were made with an anti-DEIA motivation, because the programs don’t “align with Administration’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education.”
    5. Covid vaccines live to see another year based on Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)’s latest vote. Though RFK had attempted to fill the committee with antivaxxers and covid deniers, the group ultimately voted 7-6 to allow people to make their own choices with their physicians about whether they would like the the covid vaccine. Due to these recommendations, vaccines should be available without a prescription in all 50 states.

      The ACIP still needs to weigh in on other concerning vaccine related topics, specifically an attempt to delay the administration of the MMRV and Hepatitis B vaccines to babies. Hepatitis B had previously been considered eradicated in child populations thanks to wide vaccine uptake.
    6. States form their own health coalitions, creative workarounds, in light of anti-scientific recommendations from HHS. As the HHS under RFK continues to create barriers to access for vaccines and other preventative care, states who previously relied on CDC recommendations, many of whom had laws tethering state guidance to the CDC, have taken matters into their own hands.

      The West Coast Health Alliance (Washington, California, Oregon, and Hawaii) and the Northeast Public Health Collaborative (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland and Vermont) have been formed to issue evidence-based public health recommendations, remove barriers to vaccine access, and collaborate on emergency preparedness in the absence of organizations like FEMA.

      Meanwhile, Michigan public health officials had floated declaring “not having the latest covid booster” an underlying health condition, in order to make it easier for all those who want it to obtain the vaccine.

      Large groups of insurance companies have also already committed to continuing to pay for vaccination regardless of current HHS recommendations.
    7. Access to speech and hearing services via telehealth to end this month under Medicare. Under current Medicare provisions, access to speech therapy and audiology services via telehealth will end on September 30th, unless Congress acts to extend them. HR 5081 and 1614 are two possible bills that could extend the services.

      Telehealth speech therapy and audiology services are especially important for early intervention in rural areas that wouldn’t otherwise have access to specialists.
    8. Administration declares “Antifa” and trans people terror threats. Trump took to social media this week to announce that he was labeling antifa a “major terrorist organization,” while the FBI declared trans people a “nihilistic violent extremist” threat group.

      Antifa, an abbreviation for anti-fascist, is a general ideology, and has no official organization or hierarchy. Further, the president does not have legal authority to designate terror groups.

      Trans people are a very small percentage of the population and there is no evidence to suggest they are more violent than cis people; however, they are statistically much more likely to be victims of violent crime.

      The move by the administration to label those they disagree with as “terrorists” should concern everyone interested in free speech and bodily autonomy, especially in the wake of a recent attempt by the GOP to allow Rubio’s State Department the ability to strip passports from citizens belonging to “terror” groups. (The bill has been pulled for now after backlash.)
    9. US democratic status in peril as state media censorship and ICE-related deaths spike. We highly recommend this breakdown of the ten steps required to transfer from a democratic to authoritarian form of government (2 min video.)

    What to do:
    Get your vaccinations up to date as soon as possible, and ask your state to join a state-level public health collaborative if they haven’t yet. If you live in Florida, contact your state representatives and tell them not to remove vaccine guidelines for schoolchildren. Despite rhetoric, state law about this is still in effect.

    Hit the streets if you are able. March, attend a town hall, school board meeting, or other local action. Don’t RSVP to a protest! Consider purchasing a reusable respirator (gas mask) if attending a mass protest, due to recent escalations in use of tear gas and other “less lethal” force at actions.

    Protect your neighbors. Warn and record in the presence of ICE. Push your local officials not to collaborate.

    Call your representatives, but also your local officials to ensure special education gaps are being filled in your district.

    Donate to your local food pantry, library, clinics, cash bail funds, or other mutual aid if you can. Or volunteer your time.

    Move to (more) secure encrypted apps when possible. Think about ways to spread information offline. Make flyers and stickers. Make art.

  • Week 30 Update

    1. Trump Administration begins military takeover of DC, targeting unhoused. In conjunction with his executive order targeting unhoused people, and false claims of high crime rates, Trump deployed the National Guard in Washington DC and also attempted to order the Attorney General to take over the local police force. Initially the Guardspeople weren’t supposed to be armed, but that was a lie.

    The forces have already begun massive sweeps and arrests against unhoused (or perceived unhoused) people, and Ohio and South Carolina have pledged more forces.

    The hostile takeover by the federal government and other capitulating states’ militias–a key part of Project 2025 and paralleled by many historical authoritarians–is meeting little pushback from establishment Dems. Several motions in court aim to block the actions. Unclear whether rule of law remains.
    Approximately half of unhoused people have a disability and 8% are military veterans.

    2.RFK Jr Plans to Remove Preventative Care Taskforce/Guidelines. RFK Jr. announced plans to remove the Preventative Medicine Taskforce, which he called “too woke,” sparking “deep concerns” from the American Medical Association and others.

    The Taskforce, which is nonpartisan and has been vetted for any conflicts of interest, offers evidence-based guidance on preventative medicine for a range of conditions, like when patients should have cancer or diabetes screenings, HIV preventatives and cholesterol medication.

    Without taskforce guidance, patients will have more inconsistent care, and insurance companies may not pay for preventative screenings or appointments.

    3. They’re messing with the elections, continued. The Texas legislature continues its pursuit of illegal redistricting after Trump asked the state to find him five more red seats. Texas Dems are returning to the state, and the proceedings will likely continue.

    Meanwhile, Callais v. Landry, a Louisiana-based redistricting case that is poised to destroy Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act remains on the SCOTUS shadow docket, with a date set for October. In California, Governor Newsom has threatened to make similar redistricting moves in his state in order to secure more blue districts to offset the Texas ones.

    While Newsom’s stylized tweets have gone viral for annoying Trump, ultimately gerrymandering continues to contribute to voter suppression and is unlikely to end in TX, CA, or LA.

    6. Trump tries new defunding tactics for DoEd, pushes conservative curriculum. The Trump Administration continues to attempt back door defunding of DoED. The latest: Congress is currently negotiating the bipartisan version of their budget bill. However, the Administration has already said DoED funding will be removed later via rescissions package. This move only requires 50 votes.

    Rescissions is also how funding already allocated to PBS was revoked by the administration earlier this summer. At least ten states are planning to use ultraconservative children’s materials out of PragerU (an unaccredited think tank pretending to be a university) to fill the gap.

    Prager’s materials include animated videos in which cartoon historical figures present imagined “anti-woke” talking points, like one in which Christopher Columbus tells children slavery is, “better than being killed” and Frederick Douglass calls it, “a compromise.”

    7. Local: PA GOP refuses to fund mass transit, devastating cities, statewide economy. GOP-led PA failed to pass comprehensive funding for the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority and other mass transit across the state.
    Specifically, SEPTA, serving Philadelphia and its suburbs, will see 20% service cuts and 21.5% fare raises staring this month. The removal of bus lines, fewer regional rail times and 9PM curfews, and the elimination of special events trains will devastate both worker and tourist mobility.

    Despite chronic underfunding and restrictions that prohibit Philadelphia itself from delegating more funding, SEPTA uses their funds most efficiently per capita compared to other authorities, and provides a 70% return on investment, as Philly functions as a main economic engine for a largely rural state.

    Philadelphia’s population is 40% Black and has the highest percentage of disabled residents of a major US city–marginalized and working class people will bear the burden of these cuts.

    8. Local: Arkansas School Discipline ACT 565 and 804
    ACT 565 stipulates that students removed from a classroom for behavioral reasons cannot be reinstated into the classroom if the behavior affected a teacher or student negatively.

    ACT 804 “Law Concerning the Use of Positive Behavioral Supports in Public School Districts” removes language that implements other behavioral protocol before seclusion or restraint.

    Any educational law that dictates blanket policy on behavioral protocol or classroom placement is violation of FAPE and the IEP process.

    Disabled and BIPOC children are disproportionately impacted by punitive disciplinary policies in public schools.

    9. Silicon Valley proposes eugenics as solution to fears of hostile AI takeover. Recently, leaders in the Silicon Valley sphere have presented a solution to fears of an eventual hostile AI takeover, and reports that conversing with AI has caused mental health issues: eugenics.

    Prenatal eugenic “enhancement” has long been a darling project of the techbro set, but now they are explicitly advocating for modifications made to embryos that might ensure a “higher IQ” for the resulting child, in order to combat future issues with AI.

    Advocates argue that this is not the same as the “bad kind of eugenics.” However, given the racist and ableist foundations of IQ, its obvious that they are of a piece.

    Historically, eugenics has always been framed in a positive light as a way to “advance” the human race, and has always resulted in the forced sterilization and/or murder of those deemed “undesirable” by those in power.

    Action Items: Share this info! Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

    Hit the streets if you are able. March, attend a town hall, school board meeting, or other local action.

    Protect your neighbors. Warn and record in the presence of ICE. Push your local officials not to collaborate.

    Donate to your local food pantry, library, clinics, cash bail funds, or other mutual aid if you can. Or volunteer your time.

    Call your Senators: YES to the Appropriations Committee’s push back on budget cuts and support for DC.

    Make sure you’re up to date on your vaccines. Ditch the wearable tech and AI when possible.

    Think about ways to spread information offline. Make flyers and stickers. Make art.

  • Week 26 Update

    1. SCOTUS rules on Dept of Ed. case, approving mass layoffs and paving the way for the dismantling of the department. SCOTUS ruled that DoEd’s mass layoffs (or RIFs)–attempted in March but temporarily stopped by a lower court–are allowed to move forward.

      This includes many positions that are required to be filled by law, ex: IDEA, The Education of the Deaf Act. However, SCOTUS has allowed the administration to ignore the law, and opened the door for further layoffs. Only Congress can legally dismantle a department, but the administration is already ignoring the law, and if no one works there, DoEd will not function.

      This is in conjunction with the illegal withholding of previously approved funds from July 1, and the trashing of several thousand civil rights complaints. DoEd employees are now scheduled to leave Aug 1.
    2. George Retes found and released; deaf Mongolian man remains in ICE detention. Retes, a 25 year old disabled US Army veteran was working as a security guard on a farm in Camarillo, CA. Though he is a US citizen, he was kidnapped from his car by ICE, and held for several days.

      A deaf Mongolian man who was attempting to seek asylum following legal protocol continues to be detained for over four months, without due process or a sign language interpreter. ICE agents reportedly attempted to use Google Translate with him, resulting in severe miscommunications on basic facts.

      These disabled men are just two of many kidnapped by ICE and held in squalid conditions without accommodations or information.
    3. Department of Labor to allow subminimum wage to continue. A Department of Labor statute giving businesses “sheltered workshop certifications” has long been a loophole for employers of severely disabled people to pay them less than minimum wage. Half the people employed under this statute are paid less than $3.50 an hour.

      Biden’s Department of Labor had started to repeal the rule, but the Trump administration has rolled back that request.

      The fight for wage equality must include disabled people, who face massive inequities with respect to sheltered workshops, general employment discrimination, disproportionate benefits compared to cost of living and inflation, and loss of benefits when getting married.
    4. Department of Labor to end hiring goal for disabled federal contractors. In 2013, the Obama DoL implemented a rule with a goal of at least employing disabled federal contractors at a rate of at least 7%.

      This was to comply with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, and help combat high rates of unemployment discrimination for disabled people. The program long been considered a successful step in improving wage and employment gaps for disabled workers. About 25% of people in the US have some type of disability, so even 7% is far below population representation.

      The Trump DoL will now repeal the rule, and stop tracking any data on disability within federal contracting.
    5. Insurance costs spike under new GOP budget. The GOP budget passed on July 4th, teeing up Medicaid and Medicare cuts that will harm the quality of life for many disabled people, and are expected to kill over 51,000 people annually from otherwise preventable deaths.

      Those who buy private insurance on the ACA marketplace will also be affected. Biden had previously provided subsidies to help with high payments, but they are now expiring. More than a quarter of providers are planning a rate hike of 20% or more.

      The new law also makes it harder to enroll in health insurance on the marketplace by shortening enrollment window and denying enrollment for those with outstanding balances.
    6. Dept. of Justice makes concerning move toward English-only services and materials. The memo says the department will “lead a coordinated effort to minimize non-essential multilingual services, redirect resources toward English-language education and assimilation, and ensure compliance with legal obligations through targeted measures where necessary.”

      This is a concern for all English language learners. Disabled people and/or signed languages are neither explicitly mentioned or excluded, (except citing case law that said offering disability/ss applications in English only is not a legal violation). It is unclear but concerning how this will impact deaf and hard-of-hearing people and others who use signed languages to communicate.
    7. They’re messing with the elections. The Department of Justice is making an unprecedented demand for sensitive election data. The request include access to voter rolls and in some cases “all records.” This is an abnormal request and it is unclear what the DOJ wants that data for. The requests went mainly to swing states, but others were included, too.

      Meanwhile, Texas is seeking to illegally redistrict to add five congressional seats in projected “red” areas. This is illegal, as new maps are not due to be drawn until 2031.

      Contact your local officials and demand they protect election integrity in your state. Folks both in and outside of Texas can also contact congress to stop the illegal redistricting. Templates are available for residents of any state to use.
    8. Action items: Share this info! Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

      Hit the streets if you are able. It’s past due.

      Protect your neighbors. Warn and record in the presence of ICE. Push your local officials not to collaborate.

      Boycott businesses supporting these policies. Donate to your local food pantry, library, clinics, cash bail funds, or other mutual aid if you can. Or volunteer your time.

      Contact your local officials and congresspeople and ask them to protect election integrity. (See above templates).

      Make sure you’re up to date on your vaccines. Ditch the wearable tech.

      Consider running for local office or getting involved to support a local candidate through organizing or phone banking–especially progressive primary challengers.

      Think about ways to spread information offline. Make flyers and stickers. Make art.

  • Week 22 Updates

    1. SCOTUS Upholds Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Minors. SCOTUS ruled 6-3 that states can ban trans minors from receiving gender-affirming care. Gender-affirming care can include psychological support, reversible puberty blockers, and hormone replacement therapy. In all but rare cases, surgery is not available to patients under 18. Less than 900 total surgeries on minors were performed in the US over a 3-year-period.

    In addition to being in opposition to scientific consensus and harming the mental and physical well-being of trans kids, the ruling also takes away doctor-parent autonomy in choosing what is in the best medical interest of the minor, opening the door for government control over what kinds of medicine and care everyone can access.

    2. Described and Captioned Media Program Funding Cut. The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), previously funded through DoED, was “the only free, national source of accessible educational videos for both deaf and blind, and deafblind students.” Videos with captions, ASL interpretation, and descriptive audio made a variety of educational material available for free for families and teachers.

    Due to DoEd’s funding cuts and the transition to block grant funding, states receiving money with no strings attached can to use it for accessible media…or not.

    The DCMP grant, issued through OSERS, was also a main source of income for the National Association for the Deaf (NAD).

    3. Department of Education Employees in Limbo Awaiting SCOTUS. Thousands of DoED employees await a ruling from SCOTUS’s emergency “shadow docket” process about whether their illegal firings will be overturned.

    Possible outcomes:
    SCOTUS could decide not to take the case; employees return to work.
    SCOTUS takes the case but goes on vacation 1 July, leaving things undecided until at least September.
    SCOTUS issues an official decision in either direction.
    SCOTUS consolidates the DoED case with cases of other federal agencies (unlikely, as DoED case also addresses the legality of Trump’s Executive Order about the department).

    Meanwhile, the administration seeks to continue its backdoor dismantling of federal agencies through OMB without Congressional “interference.”

    4. Department of Energy Opens New Attack on Section 504. Over the past several weeks, the Department of Energy has been working to weaken Section 504, a statute that protects disabled people’s right to enter and be accommodated in any spaces that receive federal funding, including government buildings, public schools, hospitals that accept Medicaid, and more.

    The change seeks to allow various entities to decide whether or not they want to include accessibility and accommodations for disabled people in their updates based on whether they are “efficient.”

    Public comment on this change recently closed, but you can still contact your representatives to voice your concerns about DoE and other attempts to attack 504 and ADA protections.

    5.  Trump’s EPA Considers Bringing Back Asbestos: The Biden Administration had previously banned the final type of asbestos used in the US. The current EPA has now taken that policy “under review.”

    Asbestos is a carcinogen that killed millions of Americans due to a rare and aggressive cancer called mesothelioma, though it has been linked to other cancers of the abdomen, ovaries, and larynx.

    The EPA under Trump has also sought to roll back other protections, like limits on coal emissions and toxic “forever chemicals” in drinking water, even as other parts of the administration tout a goal to make the nation “healthy again.

    6. Hickson vs St. David’s Healthcare Partnership Threatens ADA/504 in Healthcare Settings. Michael Hickson, a 46-year-old disabled Black man died in Texas in June 2020 after contracting Covid and being denied ventilator care and other ICU services. At the time, Texas and 24 other states had policies about rationing care that explicitly discriminated against disabled people. This is one of the things Final Rule updates seek to rectify.

    The case is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a conservative court. If they rule in favor of the hospital, it would set a precedent that guts disabled people’s ability to file medical facility-related discrimination claims under the ADA or Section 504.

    7. Good News: Federal Judge Rules Some NIH Grant Terminations “Void and Illegal.” On Monday, a Federal Judge ruled in a pair of cases that the administration’s termination of NIH grants was both discriminatory and had “no force or effect.”

    Most of the grants covered in the suits were terminated due to mention of LGBTQ+ populations, either directly or indirectly.

    While the ruling only reinstates grants specifically named in the suits, it opens the door for more organizations to seek reinstatement of funding through the courts.

    Keep pressure on your electeds to let them know you are watching, that the administration complies with the court’s rulings.

    Action Items
    Share this info! Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

    Call your Senator and tell them to vote NO on this dangerous budget. Choose 1 or 2 programs important to you–Medicaid, gender-affirming care, SNAP, IDEA, etc.–and mention them by name.

    Join Operation Mail Storm by writing and sending paper letters to representatives and the White House. Each is required to be opened and logged.

    If your state is involved, ask your Attorney General to withdraw from Texas v. Kennedy. If able, donate to organizations like DREDF, ACLU, who are fighting various legal challenges, and ADAPT who routinely put their bodies on the line in activist work.

    Consider how to move toward creative acts of mutual aid, and protest, including offline materials. Make flyers! Call out misinformation. Warn your neighbors (and record) in the presence of ICE. If able march, boycott, donate and/or volunteer with your local food pantry or library.

  • Week 19 Updates

    1. The Dept of Education’s proposed 2026 budget released. The proposed DoEd budget was released this week, confirming a shift from IDEA formula grants (calculated by state need, with specific requirements to be used for special ed.) to block grant format. States would no longer be required to use the money for special ed.

      Proposed program cuts for 2026: Preschool grants, State Personnel Development, Technical Assistance teams, SpEd. Personnel Preparation Program, Parent Information Centers, Educational Technology Media and Materials program, Client Assistant State Grants, several training and Supported Employment state grant programs, the Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights, Adult Education State grants. These are only the special ed programs cut. Many more have also been defunded.

      Bright spots: Funding for the Special Olympics, as well as the American Printing House for the Blind, NTID, Gallaudet University, Helen Keller National Center for DeafBlind, and Independent Living Services for Older Blind Individuals has been slated at the same rate for 2026. This is good news, and a departure from stated plans in Project 2025, which proposed defunding these programs.

      The budget also proposes slight increases in funding to both the overall special education and Vocational Rehabilitation budgets. However, these increases will not be enough to offset the programs in and outside of special ed. departments that have been defunded.

      The full DoED 2026 budget proposal is available here.
    2. HHS Budget Proposal Released: The proposed HHS budget continues ahead with plans for deep cuts across the department, especially in the NIH, CDC and Administration for Children Families and Communities. HHS department cuts sought total over $32 billion.

      Specific to the disability community, the ACL’s University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Chronic Disease Self-Management Education, Limb Loss and Paralysis Resource Centers, Voting Access for People with Disabilities, and the White House Conference on Aging are all proposed cuts.

      Bright spots: The new proposal walks back some of the proposed Administration for Community Living (ACL) eliminations. These programs remain funded in the current proposal: Councils on Developmental Disabilities, Protection and Advocacy systems, the Long-term care ombudsman program, National Institute on Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitative Research (NIDILRR), Lifespan Respite Care Program, and State Health Insurance Program (SHIP), among others.

      Instead of splitting the ACL’s programs across three different agencies as originally be proposed, the programs will move to the Administration for Children, Families and Communities. (This is good news, but remember deep budget cuts to the ACFC are also proposed)

      The Dept of Health and Human Services proposed 2026 budget is available in full here.
    3. MAHA Commission Report Cites Sources that Don’t exist: Last week, the commission released a report declaring a childhood “chronic disease crisis” in the US, identifying poor diet, chemicals, chronic stress, lack of physical activity, and “overmedicalization” as driving causes. The report also questioned vaccine safety.

      In the days since, it’s become clear that many of the sources cited do not exist.

      In addition to making the Commission’s work untrustworthy due to lack of peer-reviewed evidence, fake sources are hallmark of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, who “hallucinate” sources by putting words and names together that sound true, but aren’t real.
    4. CDC Defies RFK, Keeping covid vaccinations on childhood schedule: Last week, The FDA announced a plan to limit access to COVID boosters, restricting them to people over 65 or with underlying health conditions only. RFK also asked specifically that covid vaccines be left off the childhood vaccine schedule. Considering RFK Jr’s profitable ties to antivax organizations, many see this as the first step in limiting overall access to vaccines.

      This week, the CDC went against RFK’s statement, releasing its vaccine schedule including recommendations for covid vaccination for all children.
    5. Deaf schools under threat as state budgets compensate for DoEd cuts: Bracing for a federal budget that eliminates nearly $300 billion in education funding, some states are taking advantage of their expected freedom under the block grant system and cutting deaf school budgets.

      The New Jersey School for the Deaf (MKSD) saw their residential program completely removed from the governor’s proposed 2026 budget.

      Indiana School for the Deaf and California School for the Deaf–Fremont are also experiencing budgetary issues. Indiana seeks to reallocate money previously for ISD toward general public education, while CSD Fremont struggles to maintain appropriate funding for cost-of-living in a gentrified Silicon Valley area.
    6. NAD Sues White House to return ASL interpreters to press briefings: In keeping with eugenic rhetoric, various GOP influencers have shown particular hostility toward ASL interpreters in recent months, ever since Charlie Kirk and Chris Rufo attacked their existence at emergency briefings for the LA Fires, with Rufo calling them “wild human gesticulators”.

      Upon taking office, the Trump administration quickly removed the WH accessibility page and all ASL content, and fired the WH ASL interpreter, as part of other “anti-DEIA” initiatives.

      The NAD is now suing for the return of an interpreter to WH press briefings. The organization filed and won a similar suit during Trump 1.0, in order to access the emergency covid-related briefings.
    7. Musk out, Project 2025 Writer up: Elon Musk made an exit from the White House this week after a tanking Tesla stock, reports of heavy illegal drug use, and economic models showing that tens of thousands of people, most of them children, have been killed by his pet project–the illegal closure of USAID. Most of the deaths have resulted from malnutrition and lack of oral-rehydration medication for patients with diarrhea, two program areas hit quickest by the loss of funds.

      Russel Vought, a self-proclaimed “Christian Nationalist” and head writer for Project 2025, is poised to take over Musk’s work. It’s likely that he’ll be less flashy, and more effective, than Elon in the position.
    8. Hickson v. St. David’s Healthcare Partnership poses new threat to ADA/504: Michael Hickson, a 46-year-old disabled Black man died in Texas in June 2020 after contracting Covid and being denied ventilator care and other ICU services. At the time, Texas and 24 other states had policies about rationing care that explicitly discriminated against disabled people. This is one of the things Final Rule updates seek to rectify.

      The case is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a conservative court. If they rule in favor of the hospital, it would set a precedent that guts disabled people’s ability to file medical facility-related discrimination claims under the ADA or Section 504.

      Action items:
      Share this info! Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

      Call your Senator and tell them to vote NO on this dangerous budget. Choose 1 or 2 programs important to you–Medicaid, gender-affirming care, SNAP, IDEA, etc.–and mention them by name.

      Call your state representative and tell them to include deaf schools in their budgets. You can text NJ Governor Phil Murphy at 732-605-5455

      If your state is involved, ask your Attorney General to withdraw from Texas v. Kennedy. If able, donate to organizations like DREDF, ACLU, and NAD who are fighting various legal challenges.

      Contact medical providers requesting they do not share yours or your child’s autism diagnosis or records with the government registry. Letter template available here.

      Consider how to move toward creative acts of mutual aid, and protest, including offline materials. Make flyers! Call out misinformation. Warn your neighbors in the presence of ICE. If able march, boycott, donate and/or volunteer with your local food pantry or library.

  • Week 12 Update

    Week 12 Update

    1. House passes budget framework, paving the way for deep social cuts. The House passed the budget framework that paves the way for Trump’s desired budget, including trillions in tax cuts for rich people, increased defense spending, increased spending autonomy for the President, weakening social security, and an estimated $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid.
      The House and Senate must now work to turn their resolutions into actual legislative text, which will reveal the minute breakdown of their spending plan and cuts. This is typically a months-long process.
    2. Markets roil as Trump plays with global tariffs, threatens more. Trump issued tariffs on multiple countries in a questionably legal process this week, promptly tanking the global market. He paused some of the tariffs for 90 days due to instability, but kept a tax at over 100% on goods from China, who also levied their own tariffs. (Update: as of noon on 4/12, Trump also paused tariffs on electronics like smartphones and computers.)

      Tariff costs are passed down to the buyer, meaning further hikes in a market where food and basics prices are already soaring. This will be a hardship for all Americans, but especially those already struggling with food insecurity, and/or those on a fixed income.

      Trump also announced tariffs on pharmaceutical imports to be implemented “shortly,” with no details yet on which medications will be affected. Medical device and equipment prices are already expected to rise due to current tariffs.
    3. HHS fallout reveals more disability-centric programs lost. Massive cuts at the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities last week left advocates reeling. Now the cuts are coming clear:

      EHDI programming for universal newborn hearing screenings has been eliminated. States have received some funding in 2025, but may not receive the rest.

      The CDC partnership with the Special Olympics has also been eliminated. Trump and DeVos first tried to defund the program in 2017. (4/12, clarifying note: The Special Olympics funding and oversight primarily came from OSERS in the Dept of Ed, but those employees were also laid off in earlier an earlier RIF).

      A department dedicated to sickle cell research is gone.

      The team for national data collection on adults with cognitive disabilities is gone, just before a key report about the rise in cognitive disability in young people was to be released. Some say it’s being blocked so RFK can bury evidence contradicting his own team’s theories about “autism’s origins,” which he’s promised to “reveal” by September.
    4. White House Press Secretary says the administration is seeking a “legal” pathway for deporting US citizens. White House press secretary Leavitt mentioned this week that the administration was looking into whether there is a legal pathway to deport US citizens. (There’s not!)

      Leavitt said the move would only be exercised on “criminals” who commit “heinous” crimes. However, that the DOJ has already been stripping students of their visas for protests and other thought crimes, and 75% of the immigrants who were illegally deported to El Salvador have no criminal record suggest they will continue to use their power for show against anyone they want.

      Legal scholars and historians fear the move will be used to strip the citizenship and/or detain anyone “undesirable,” a frightening a echo from 1930s Germany’s stripping of citizenship from Jewish people and others, the 1940s US internment of Japanese people, and other war crimes.
    5. House passes “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act” (SAVE Act). The proposed law, which will require people to present proof of citizenship in-person in order to register to vote, passed the House this week, including votes from for Democratic representatives.

      One major concern is that women who changed their name due to marriage won’t be able to use their birth certificates for proof of citizenship, since their surnames no longer match. An amendment was suggested to remedy this, but it was denied.

      People with any name different than what’s issued on their birth certificate will need a passport to register, and everyone will need to present this proof in-person. 50% of Americans have no passport.

      SAVE would place undue hardship and expense, and restrict the right to vote of the elderly, disabled, women and trans folks, those living rurally and more.

      The bill is likely to be voted down in the Senate, but it is still worth calling about.
    6. DOGE accesses Social Security database, falsely begins declaring some recipients “dead” to stop payments. DOGE has shown their inability to understand basic information stored within the SSA’s database over the past months, in part because it is written in an archaic coding language. Previously DOGE said they would rewrite the code, but that is a long-term project.

      In the interim, DOGE has declared some people dead as a way of removing them from the payment system. This has largely attacked immigrants, but some US citizens were also placed into the “death master file.”

      Beyond stopping social security payments, falsely declaring someone dead will have massive implications on their ability to move through the world, may cut access to their credit cards and more. SSA employees who tried to stop DOGE were ejected from the building.
    7. Texas v. Becerra lawsuit continues. Attorneys General continue to use transphobic rhetoric to attack Final Rule and Section 504.

      Participants continue to say they do not want to dismantle disabled people’s rights, but have not revoked the original filing, which explicitly asks for 504 to be declared unconstitutional (p 37-42).

      504 protects disabled people’s rights in all spaces that receive federal funding, but could have major implications in conjunction with rescinding of ADA guidance, and the uncertain future of DoEd. The next update is due in the coming days.
    8. Do not comply in advance (good news). Due to pending legal action over McMahon’s DoEd issued directive to withhold funding from schools pending receipt of their anti-DEI loyalty pledge, a judge ordered that schools do not need to sign any certifications until at least April 24, after the legality of the pledge is assessed.

      Previously, the directive required school leadership to sign within 10 days.

      So far NY, MA, PA, MI, WI, IL, MN, CO, OR, and WA officials have declined to sign, while other states have declared their intent to sign or are still in review. (full map of states’ declared intent)

      Action:
      Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

      Call your Representative and tell them to intervene on behalf of the Dept of Education, SSA and HHS regarding illegal layoffs.

      Call your Senator and tell them to vote NO on SAVE and any budget cuts to Medicaid.

      Contact your school board and state’s education officials, and tell them not to comply with McMahon’s baseless anti-DEI directive.

      If your state is involved, contact your Attorney General and ask them to withdraw from Texas v. Beccera. Tell them you stand in solidarity with disabled people, and trans folks.

      Consider how to move toward creative acts of mutual aid, local protest and growing awareness, including offline materials. Make flyers! Warn your neighbors in the presence of ICE. If able, donate or volunteer with your local food pantry or library.

  • Action Item: Protect Deaf and Special Education!

    Action Item: Protect Deaf and Special Education!

    1300 Department of Education employees were laid off last week, some of them illegally, including workers in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), who provide a variety of special education funding and programs, oversee IDEA, and fund and support special institutions like Gallaudet, NTID, the American Printing House for the Blind, Helen Keller National Center for the Blind, and more. Take action!

    Two options:

    1. Write to your Representative in the House. Find your Representative here.
    2. Write to a Senator on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Here is the full list of the committee. If your Senator serves, write them! If not, you can still choose a Senator to write to in their capacity on the committee, as long as you are honest about where you live. Here are some suggested contacts for the four Republicans most likely to stand up for special and deaf education:

    The template below can be tailored to contact a Representative or Senator, by mail or email– or one of each!

    Dear [Senator or Representative + Last Name]: 

    [If writing your congressperson, or if your Senator serves on the HELP committee: “I am a constituent from zip code [insert yours]”].
    OR
    [If writing to a Senator on the HELP committee not from your state: “I am a resident of writing to you in your capacity on the HELP committee.”] I am writing to express my grave concern that Linda McMahon, President Trump, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are taking steps to abolish the Department of Education and eliminate educational opportunities for millions of students across the country, especially this impact has on students who are deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind. This includes the termination of over 1,300 workers at the Department of Education. Linda McMahon inappropriately included in this termination of the Liaison to the Special Institutions, who works in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS).

    The Liaison to the Special Institutions position within the Department of Education is mandated by the law The Education of the Deaf Act  (EDA) 20 U.S.C. 4356 Section 206 Liaison for Educational Programs. Through this law, Gallaudet University and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) receive direct appropriations from Congress to provide education and employment services to individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind.  The EDA designates the Liaison to serve between the Department and Gallaudet University, NTID, and other postsecondary educational programs for individuals who are deaf under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and other Federal or non-Federal agencies, institutions, or organizations involved with the education or rehabilitation of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. The law also stipulates that the person in this position must be from the deaf community.

    Without the Liaison, the Department will be unable to fulfill its critical functions as mandated in the EDA.  In order to keep operations at both Gallaudet and NTID continued without disruption, I ask that you take immediate action to have Linda McMahon correct her mistake and reinstate the employee who serves in this position. 

    Sincerely, 

    [Your name]

    [Your Contact information] 

  • Breaking: Nearly Half the Department of Education Laid Off Tuesday, Including from Legally Mandated Positions

    Breaking: Nearly Half the Department of Education Laid Off Tuesday, Including from Legally Mandated Positions

    On Tuesday, 11 March, the Department of Education fired over 1,300 workers, nearly half of the department. Afterward, Linda McMahon told reports that legally-mandated employees, and programs protecting disabled students’ rights were not affected; however, that was a lie. In the same interview, she also revealed she did not know what IDEA stands for.

    Federal work has some in-built protections to layoffs generally, but on top of that, some of the jobs removed yesterday are legally-mandated, making it illegal for those positions to be vacant.

    The layoffs had a wide reach across departments, but it’s been confirmed that some of those removed were from OSERS, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

    OSERS oversees and funds early intervention and IDEA law, various Vocational Rehabilitation programs, and special institutions like the American Printing House for the Blind, Helen Keller National center for DeafBlind, National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) and Gallaudet.

    Without a functioning department for funding and advocating for these programs, they are in danger. With respect to Gallaudet, specifically, the university has some special protections due to its Charter, but it is not immune to cuts, and there is no specific amount of funding guaranteed.

    Ultimately, this is no longer about debating various political policies anymore, but about returning to the rule of law.

    Action Items

    1. Don’t panic. There are currently many unknowns, which can be scary, but instead of spiraling you can–

    2. Call your senator. Tell them to vote NO on the budget resolution until those who are illegally fired are reinstated, and there are guardrails in place to revoke financial control to DOGE and return it to Congress, as it says in the Constitution.

    The Senate Democrats have leverage at this moment, because bipartisan effort will be required to pass the bill by Friday, so please let Senators, especially Democratic Senators know it’s past time to stand up for the rule of law.

    3. If you are in DMV area, there will be a protest outside the Department of Education building tomorrow (Thursday the 13th) starting at 1PM. Show up if you can.

    4. Spread the word. Not only will these actions harm children and society overall, but they are illegal. People in power are not above the law in this or any context.