A special education leader under the George W. Bush administration says the dismantling of the Department of Education will impact students with disabilities.
Stephanie Smith Lee now serves as policy and advocacy co-director at the National Down Syndrome Congress, a nonprofit organization that helps families understand what’s at stake for a federal law that Congress established in 1975.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has helped people like Lee’s late daughter, Laura, go to college.
“I and other parents have experienced challenges with the schools and other things, but we went from a situation where, when Laura was born, we were encouraged to institutionalize her – to her going to college,” Lee said. “So, in 50 years, we've gone from institutionalization to an institute of higher education.”
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
7 questions with Stephanie Smith Lee
What is the Department of Education's role in educating students with disabilities?
“The Department of Education is responsible for a number of laws … and one of the very important responsibilities is to ensure the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. And the department issues regulations and guidance to help states understand how to follow the law. OSEP, the Office of Special Education Programs, has an oversight responsibility and provides guidance and technical assistance to states and works to ensure that they supervise the local school districts to make sure that the law is followed. There's also a number of grant programs that are funded to help states, schools and parents.”
How does a special education student feel the impact of the IDEA as they sit in their public-school classroom?
“It's interesting to think back before IDEA was passed in 1975 … Back then, there were many students who were not allowed in the school before the law passed. Over a million children with disabilities were completely excluded from school. There were states that had laws that would not allow children with intellectual disabilities like my daughter to attend school. And there were a hundred thousand institutionalized. So, if you think back 50 years ago where students were sitting, a lot of them were not sitting in schools. And over the last 50 years, we've made huge progress in getting those students in the schools and having the opportunity to learn. So, a student now has an individualized education program, which is a plan that determines where they're gonna get educated and what kind of services and support they're gonna have. This is critically important to the student and their families. So, the monitoring that takes place at the federal level is making sure that those students sitting in the classroom get the services and support that they're entitled to under the law.”
Advertisement
Is funding for the IDEA threatened?
“No, I don't think that funding is threatened. There are three major areas that families are deeply concerned about. One is the damage that's already been done to the Department of Education through firing employees and canceling funding. The others – the damage that would be done if this office was moved somewhere else. And the devastation that would occur if IDEA was block granted. So, the funding itself is not in question right now.”
Why is it a bad thing to move the handling of the IDEA from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services, as the Trump administration has proposed?
“IDEA is about education and it's important to stay with the other parts of the department that have to do with education. The Department of Health and Human Services is also a huge bureaucracy, and this office would be lost within that.”
Why do you disagree with the proposal to send money to school districts through block grants with no strings attached?
“It's the responsibility of the Office of Special Education Programs in the Department of Education to make sure that those funds are used the way that they're supposed to be used, the way that Congress directed them to be used. And we don't wanna go back to a system where it's up to the states, even whether or not they provide special education. There has been no description of what block granting would look like. And we know there would be no oversight from the federal government, no monitoring to make sure that the law is followed. Would the current requirements in the law for individualized education programs and so on still be there? There's no saying what that might look like.”
You used to direct the Office of Special Education under former President George W. Bush. What would you tell the current administration today?
“Let me say first of all that it was an honor to work for President George W. Bush. His focus was on making sure that no child would be left behind. He had a strong focus on improving education for students of color, students with disabilities, students who were learning English, and students living in poverty. I'm not seeing that. Now we need to go back to looking at how we can improve education for all students and stop this purge of the Department of Education, rehire employees and resume the funding that is so critical for all students.”
Do you have hope that a bipartisan solution is possible to protect students with disabilities?
“We must always have hope and IDEA and special education has always been bipartisan. Over the decades we've had Republican presidents, senators, members of the House be strong supporters, and I have every hope that as families across the country are telling their stories to members of Congress that we'll get to where we need to be.”
Find out more information here.
Correction: The original audio version of this story incorrectly represented the research and statements of Tammy Kolbe of the American Institutes for Research. Kolbe’s researchfound that sending federal special education funding directly to school districts using existing funding formulas would drive special education dollars to the districts that need it most. Her research neither endorsed nor studied the impact of sending money directly to school districts using no-strings-attached block grants, as was originally indicated in the interview. The audio version of this story has been updated to correct this error.
Editor’s note: Eight million students rely on the IDEA, including host Deepa Fernandes’ daughter.
Ashley Lockeproduced and edited this interview for broadcast withMichael Scotto. Locke also adapted it for the web.
