The Uncertain Future of Special Education: Presidential Authority and the Proposed Shift to HHS
With the United States Department of Education in a state of flux at the national level, one question that looms large is the status of special education laws currently administered by the Department.
The President has indicated that he intends to “move special education oversight to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,” which is overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Questions remain as to whether or not the President has the authority to move IDEA oversight by way of executive order.
The IDEA states, “[t]here shall be, within the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education, an Office of Special Education Programs, which shall be the principal agency in the department for administering and carrying out this title and other programs and activities concerning the education of children with disabilities.”
Disability advocacy groups are likely to challenge the move, in part, based upon the belief that IDEA and other special education statutes are not questions of health or medicine, but, rather, are questions of education programing and implementation.
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