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Special Education In The Trump Era

Earlier this year, the Trump administration began to crackdown on the federal Department of Education. The question is, how will the ensuing cuts effect America’s schools and its special needs pupils? A small program in Arlington, Virginia provides a potential answer.

Few things are as equally important as they are neglected. One such example is special education. It is a fact that there are students in the education system who require extra attention due to disabilities. Some pupils simply need more time to take exams, while others require speech therapists to teach them how to communicate.

The work done by special educators and their support staff is vital and often life-changing for these students. Currently, around 15% of all K-12 (kindergarten through twelfth grade) are classified as disabled. In 2023, this totaled nearly 8 million students. Despite this number, throughout the United States’ education system, the need for specially trained educators and other relevant staff is dire.

As noted by the education publication Chalkbeat, “Every year, more special education teachers quit than graduate from the nation’s teacher preparation programs.” Specifically, around 16,000 more special education teachers leave than can be replaced. As a result of this need, students, staff, and parents are often desperate to get the resources they need.

Located in Virginia, right across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital, Arlington County has not been spared these problems. Despite its advantages, it too has faced issues with providing disabled students with the education they require. Furthermore, earlier this year, it was announced that a program designed to assist preschoolers with disabilities was to be eliminated. These issues are compounded by President Donald Trump’s cuts to the Department of Education and Virginia’s own struggles with its special education programs.

Attacking the Watchdog

In March of 2025, Donald Trump announced that he wanted to cut funding and resources for the US Department of Education (DOE) and aimed to close the department entirely. These attacks were further compounded by the nomination and confirmation of Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education, who has been a vocal advocate for gutting the department. In the lead up to, and immediate aftermath of, these attacks on the Department, publications examined how they would potentially affect special education programs throughout the country.

In order to first understand the threat, it is crucial to understand how the Department of Education functions, especially as it relates to special education. Apologies in advance for the proceeding alphabet soup of acronyms.

As has been stated ad nauseum, the Department of Education does not have a say in how school curriculum is structured. Rather, it facilitates the dispersal of government funds to schools throughout the country. The department also works to ensure children have equal access to public education, and that schools conform to federal regulations.

One such regulation is IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Signed into law in 1975, this document, in short, guarantees that students with disabilities have access to a free and appropriate education. It also distributes funds to the nation’s schools through the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). These funds are used to improve special education programs, mostly by hiring specialists and experts.

Another key aspect of IDEA is the Individual Education Plan (IEP). These are federally mandated education plans for individual students with disabilities. Each plan, is designed to meet a disabled child’s specific educational needs. Again, the federal government does not craft these plans. Instead, in an ideal world, parents and educators work together to craft the most sensible learning plan for the student.

The DOE also oversees the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). As it relates to special education, OCR works to enforce section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 ensures that entities receiving federal funding do not discriminate based on disability. It will take complaints and work with schools and school districts deemed out of compliance with legislation and work with them to ameliorate the issues. Over the years, the number of these complaints has been increasing, illustrating the critical importance of OCR.

States’ Rights

The cuts proposed by Donald Trump, along with his proposal to destroy the DOE altogether, have been met with much fanfare by some conservatives. A common refrain is that by dismantling the department, states will have more power and flexibility to shape their education programs to suit their specific needs. As stated by the Heritage Foundation’s Jonathan Butcher, “this is an opportunity to streamline federal processes.”

Of course, as has been written, states and school districts already have the latitude to spend federal funding as they see fit. In fact, only around 10% of federal funds make up school districts’ budgets, the rest comes from state and local taxes.

It can be argued that the main role of the department is that of an overseer and regulator. It requires that, among other things, schools use federal funds appropriately, all American children have equal access to education, and that civil rights are protected. Its gutting could severely hamper, or worse, eliminate these oversights. This would be especially troublesome for states who have failed to abide by federal regulations.

A Chequered State

Virginia should be a state that excels at providing education to students with disabilities. It is home to some of the nation's top universities, such as the University of Virginia, the University of Richmond, and, of course, the College of William and Mary. It ranks in the top 25% of US states for per capita income, and, according to CNBC, has one of the best K-12 (kindergarten to 12th grade) programs in the country, especially in its teacher-to-student ratio.

Unfortunately, the reality has not matched the potential. According to the OCR database that tracks complaints filed against states, Virginia has a total of 236 complaints from the years 2010 to 2024. Of these, there are 154 complaints related to discrimination based on disabilities in primary and secondary schools.

In 2019, the problems became so exacerbated that the Department of Education opened an investigation into Virginia’s Department of Education (VDOE) because of its inability to conform to IDEA. A year later in 2020 the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), a Virginia state organization designed to review policy implementations, released the findings of their own, separate, investigation into Virginia’s special education programs.

The results of these investigations were troublesome. From 2019 to 2024, the US Department of Education repeatedly found that the state was unable to fulfill numerous federal requirements. This included issues with the state’s complaint procedures, IEP process, and Independent Educational Evaluations. It was not until December of last year that VDOE finally came into compliance.

The JLARC report from 2020, while noting that outcomes for students were improving, found that inequities persisted, especially for black students. It was also highly critical of the implementation of IEPs. Additionally, in a separate 2023 report, JLARC found that the formula used to calculate the funds for education was flawed, and had underserved the state’s students and teachers.

Speaking to For your Freedom and Ours, Virginia State Senator Barbara Favola stated that the root of many of these issues is lack of funding and issues with finding staff. She pointed out that many special educators in the state not only struggle with overwhelming caseloads but are even forced to work second jobs.

Senator Favola herself has a special connection to the issue of special education. Her child’s disability was a driving force behind her entrance into politics.

Local parents have been making their displeasure with the system known. One parent decried Virginia Govener Glenn Youngkin’s apparent lack of care regarding students with disabilities. They told Radio IQ, “He treats the disabled like the invisible, a class that’s not politically important enough to care about.” During a 2024 listening session with Virginia officials, a parent lamented the that, “As a parent, I’m not going to allow my child to be home…and not do any academics.”

Ms. Favola, while not as critical as some parents, was still lukewarm towards the governor’s efforts. She noted that, while Governor Youngkin was good with the healthcare aspect of education, he was wrapped up in his determination to push “Lab Schools.” These Lab Schools, while labeled and treated as public schools, are, essentially, charter schools that are linked to colleges and universities within the state.

In order to attend one of these schools, a child must enter into a lottery, and there is only enough space for a certain number of students. While a study by the research firm CREDO shows there is evidence that charter school attendance leads to slightly better outcomes for students, that study has been questioned by some. Additionally, many Virginia state Democrat representatives worry that these lab schools take away funding from the state’s public schools.

Moves Towards Reform

Despite these setbacks, the state has been attempting to implement reforms. For one, the formula that was utilized to calculate expenditure on education has been revised. Additionally, a cap that had been put in place on spending has been eliminated. This spending cap was put in place after the Great Recession of 2008-09, resulting in the number of state-funded support staff being limited. Its threshold had been increasing for years from 17.75 support positions per 1000 students in 2022 to 24 in 2025.

Legislation has also passed the Virginia General Assembly that aims to improve accountability and accessibility for special education. Senator Favola, with the aid of Republican representative Carrie Coyner, passed a bill that was signed by Governor Youngkin last April. It, among other things, creates eight regional offices that are to review and monitor the issuance and implementation of IEPs.

The bill also aims to improve the matter of staffing. For instance, every school system now has an individual who is available for parents to discuss IEPs and special education matters.

Nagging Problems

And yet, despite these improvements, issues remain. The most pressing is still that of staffing, which is part of a national shortage of special education teachers. The 2024 bill attempts to, in part at least, address the dearth of specialized teachers. A subset of the bill includes a literacy initiative that works to identify students struggling with literacy and direct staffing and funds to them.

However, some activists remain guarded. Kandise Lucas, a special education advocate, questioned whether Governor Youngkin was going to follow through on the promises made to the federal government, especially in how the state plans to implement independent evaluations. Another advocate, Carol Bauer, expressed concerns that Governor Youngkin has not adequetly addressed the funding issues surrounding special education.

The Governor’s Office and the VDOE both declined to respond to requests for comment.

These shortcomings are felt by districts and counties throughout the state. While the poorest are most affected, even wealthier counties and cities feel the shortcomings of the education system.

Won’t Somebody Please…

Arlington County sits on the Potomac River right next to Washington DC. Its population totals 243,760 and there are currently over 27,000 students in its K-12 schools. It is one of the richest counties in the country with a median household income of over $140,000 as of 2023. Yet not even this well-off county can escape the issues that have plagued Virginia’s, and the country’s, special education system.

According the OCR database, the county was investigated twice for shortcomings in its provision of education to disabled students. The complaints, from 2017 and 2021, revolved around issues of accessibility, effective communication, and FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education). While the complaint and the agreement letters were not available for the 2021 issue, the 2017 allegations surrounded the inability of a student to attend school and a failure to satisfy the their IEP. Despite these instances, the county has been implementing measures to assist children with disabilities.

One program that aims to help students is the Integration Station. Essentially a preschool for children with disabilities, the program is designed to provide different forms and levels of care for students so that they can more easily integrate into the Arlington school system. The program offers unique and individualized learning programs for its students. As its website states, “Particular attention and focus is given to communication, adaptive skills and social-emotional engagement as these areas are the biggest predictors of success in future schooling and in life beyond school.”

Erin Turner, a mother of a son who has a disability, has seen the effectiveness of this program firsthand. After spending the latter half of 2024 getting diagnostics done on her son, she enrolled him in the Integration Station in January of 2025. Ms. Turner was emphatic in her praise of the program. Since her child’s enrollment, she saw improved changes in his ability to communicate and his overall confidence. These improvements further lead to progress in secondary issues such as potty training.

…Think of the Children!

It was therefore a shock when it was revealed earlier this year that the program was to be cut in order to save money. In response to request for comment, Catherine Ashby, Assistant Superintendent for School and Community Relations, stated that, “Integration Station was one of the various considerations for possible reductions as part of the budget process.”

Gerald Mann, the county’s chief academic officer, announced the cuts after a study on the county school system was performed by the consulting group Baker Tilly. The group, whose US branch is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, concluded that the status of Integration Station should be reviewed. The firm noted, “Exploring how services of the Integration Station are currently delivered and implementing a new model could result in savings of $1 million.”

As a result, when the draft 2025 Arlington budget was delivered, the program was set to be eliminated. The proposed solution to the cut was to have the affected students, and future students, enter schools near their homes to be educated.

Ms. Turner was highly skeptical of the plan. She noted that the school that would have taken in her son did not have a program that would have catered to his needs. She also believed that the proposal was not properly thought out and was rushed. She further commented that an advantage of Integration Station was the its staff were all experts in pre-school education and were permanent employees. Therefore, her son had a sense of continuity and did not have to worry about attending a program that was simply attached to an elementary school.

Additionally, as has been discussed in this piece, the state is just recovering from being out of IDEA compliance for five years, and this recovery still being questioned by some advocates.

Thankfully, in April, it came to light that the program would remain open and that it was not threatened in the upcoming budget. Ms. Ashby noted that, “Based on that feedback and our review of the program, we decided there will be no changes to [Integration Station] for the upcoming school year.”

Thanks to the work of parents, advocates, and local politicians, special needs students in Arlington will still have access to this program and the individualized learning that it provides.

A Continuing Struggle

Saving the Integration Station, combined with Virginia’s efforts to improve the delivery of special education services, should give one a sense of hope and optimism. It illustrates how advocacy can move the needle at the local and state levels. Had it not been for the parents of Arlington, a beloved and effective program would have been shuttered.

Ms. Turner described how her and other affected families attempted to craft an effective campaign to save the program. This included attending school board meetings, visiting officials’ office hours, and communicating with representatives at all levels of government. Ms. Turner remarked that she is a parent first who was pushed into being an advocate.

It would be naïve though to think that saving this program now means that the community can relax. For one, there is no guarantee that the program will not be on the chopping block in the future. Again, Ms. Ashby wrote that an “internal and external review committee [will be established in Fall of 2025] to conduct a thorough and holistic review of all our [Arlington Public School] PreK programs.” She further stated that proposed changes in the nature and number of programs could include Integration Station.

What’s more, external pressures at the state level only compound the pressures faced by educators, parents, and students. They face a state government focused on quasi-charter schools; that has had multiple heads for its Education Department; and has a history of not complying with IDEA. All the while, the Trump administration is stripping away the tools available to ensure that students have access to quality education and do not slip through the cracks.

It is unfortunate that parents, who often juggle both children and a career, are the ones that must bring these issues to the forefront. It is hardly fair to ask people who are effectively working 16-plus hours per day to also fight government bureaucracy, especially on their own. It is the duty of everyone to ensure that children in their community, state, nation, and the world have access to quality education. In the words of senator Favola, “we should be able, as a society, to ensure every child has a healthy start.”