Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Washington Post reports:
The Education Department has rescinded 72 policy documents that outline the rights of students with disabilities as part of the Trump administration’s effort to eliminate regulations it deems superfluous.
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services wrote in a newsletter Friday that it had “a total of 72 guidance documents that have been rescinded due to being outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective — 63 from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and 9 from the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA).” The documents, which fleshed out students’ rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Rehabilitation Act, were rescinded Oct. 2.
Advocates for students with disabilities were still reviewing the changes to determine their impact. Lindsay E. Jones, the chief policy and advocacy officer for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said she was particularly concerned to see guidance documents outlining how schools could use federal money for special education removed.
More from Vice News:
The memos deal with two major pieces of legislation: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Rehabilitation Act. At the time of her Senate confirmation hearing in January, however, DeVos didn’t appear to know what the Disabilities Education Act was or even that it existed.
When asked by Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine during a hearing whether she supported “the federal requirement” for protections for disabled students, DeVos said she thought the matter was best “left to the states” but “is certainly worth discussion.” She declined to give a yes or no answer though.
Prodded a few minutes later by New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan, whose son has cerebral palsy, about whether DeVos knew the Disabilities Act was a federal law, DeVos said she may have “confused it” in an exchange that later went viral on Twitter.
Stunning: Maggie Hassan (who has a disabled son) realizes that DeVos doesn’t know the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act exists. pic.twitter.com/ht2dK9iqL8
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) January 18, 2017