The Uncertain Future of Federal Funding for Special Education

The landscape of special education in the United States stands at a pivotal juncture. Landmark legislation, such as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1975, dramatically reshaped the educational experiences of students with disabilities. These laws, further reinforced by the Americans with Disabilities Act in the 1990s, paved the way for inclusive education and crucial accommodations. However, proposed cuts to the federal Department of Education are raising concerns among advocates that the progress made over decades could be jeopardized.

A History of Progress and the Threat of Regression

Before the widespread implementation of special education accommodations, many students with disabilities faced exclusion from traditional education settings. Susan Popkin's brother-in-law was kept out of traditional education until high school, while David Bateman’s brother-in-law couldn’t enroll for the first 17 years of his life. These stories illustrate the stark reality prior to the reforms of the 1970s and beyond.

Now, with the potential for significant cuts to the Department of Education, advocates fear a return to those exclusionary practices. Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parents Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), voices concern that the accomplishments in special education could "go away in the blink of an eye."

The Rationale Behind the Cuts and Expert Concerns

The Trump administration's plans to eventually slash the Department of Education were previewed by the conservative policy playbook “Project 2025.” Despite several outstanding lawsuits, the administration has largely made good on that promise with a massive reduction in force hitting the department. The official rationale for the cuts is that they “empower states to take charge and advocate for and implement what is best” for students’ education, according to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

According to McMahon, "Closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them-we will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs."

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However, experts argue that dismantling the Department of Education, which oversees these vital services, effectively cuts off accommodations by proxy. Eve Hill, a disability rights lawyer, asserts that "If there's no one to do the work, then you have gotten rid of them. They’re reducing our rights to pieces of paper."

The Growing Number of Students Affected

The potential impact of these cuts is far-reaching, with millions of students at risk. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of students receiving special education accommodations has grown significantly, increasing from 6.4 million in the 2012-2013 school year to 7.5 million in the 2022-2023 academic year. These services now support the equivalent of 15 percent of all public school students.

The system has never been fully comprehensive or uniform, with many states offering varying levels of services based on their own investments into special education programs. Each state also receives a cut of $15 billion from the federal government designated for special education, covering costs of special education teachers and aides, screening and early intervention for infants and toddlers, and speech and occupational therapists, among other resources.

Concerns About Resource Distribution and Oversight

Advocates express serious doubts about the ability of a reduced Department of Education workforce to effectively distribute and oversee this substantial funding pool. Susan Popkin, co-director of the Disability Equity Policy Initiative at the nonprofit Urban Institute, believes it will be “nearly impossible” for the now-reduced Department of Education workforce to properly distribute and oversee that pool of funding. "You end up with no oversight and no way to distribute the resources," she says.

Popkin draws a parallel to the states' uneven response to covering SNAP food assistance programs during the 2025 government shutdown, warning that "Some states will have funding and services ready to go and others won’t do anything at all, so we’ll have huge holes across the country. The hope is parents and local government will unite and come up with local solutions, but it'll be patchy. There’s no way of getting around it."

The Threat of Block Grants and Shifting Priorities

There are also discussions of turning IDEA funding into a block grant, meaning states could theoretically use discretion to put the federal money toward one priority - like autism services - while disregarding others, like services for blind and deaf populations. This potential shift raises concerns that states might prioritize certain disabilities over others, leading to disparities in services. Carrie Gillispie, project director of Early Development and Disability at think tank New America, says, "They may prioritize it in odd or harmful ways. We don't know for sure if it'll be block granted, but everything we've seen in the president's proposal and other rhetoric leading up to now is making people worried they will block grant it."

The funding also helps with early intervention programs intended to prevent children from needing special education services later - for example, identifying a speech impediment and fixing it early on.

Federal cuts to Medicaid could further eat into funding for early intervention programs. “It’s already underfunded, it’s already strained. There’s already a workforce crisis,” she says. “Demand keeps rising for young kids with disabilities; there's more young children being identified, so demand is going up with supply going down.”

The Loss of Institutional Knowledge and Increased Complaints

The reduction in Department of Education oversight could lead to increased confusion about special education rights. Federal staffers offer invaluable institutional knowledge, and their absence will leave a void. Gillespie pointed toward 18 new state directors of special education who “now have no one to call.”

Gillespie explains that "Parents, educators and state administrators rely on ED [the Education Department] for a lot of help and technical assistance in making special education work. At the state level, “a lot are saying, ‘Where do we get the guidance to follow the law?’ [ED officials] have institutional knowledge you can't read from a textbook.”

With that confusion comes more complaints filed. Often, families file complaints within the school district or the state, before going to the federal Office for Civil Rights. They typically stem from violations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which guarantees individuals with disabilities have equal opportunities and rights, and the IDEA Act, which guarantees a “free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities.” A complaint could cover anything from a school not having wheelchair accessibility to a teacher not giving a student extra time to take an exam. According to data from the Department of Education , over one-third of the complaints OCR handles are related to disabilities. That office was largely gutted in February and again in October.

Hill, an attorney, expects parents will begin turning toward private lawyers as OCR will be unable to keep up with the deluge of complaints. "I think there will be more problems; there just won't be anywhere to go with them," Hill says. "Parents and kids will have complaints they need to file, but nowhere to file them. So, they'll go to private lawyers. But there are not enough of us, so people will end up having their educational rights taken away." Hiring private lawyers also requires time and money many do not have.

David Bateman, a special education consultant and retired professor of special education at Shippensburg University, notes that "Parents are taking out second mortgages on their homes just to get the rights for the child, but they can also take off from work to prep for the hearing and attend the hearing. Most don't have the money, nor flexibility."

Advocacy and Potential Solutions

Special education advocates urge parents to engage with their local and state representatives and collaborate with their schools. Marshall emphasizes that "Everyone can take some level of action to reverse this and it's important to be loud about it. The worst thing we can do is allow this to continue and not take the steps to educate people why it's part of their fight."

Hill suggests COPAA and the National Disabilities Rights Network as valuable resources. Popkin recommends connecting with or establishing a special education PTA within school districts and contacting local representatives to advocate for filling the gaps left by the federal government. "Things are different than the earlier eras; there's a lot of strong advocacy groups for disabilities and parents are always motivated to protect their kids," she says.

The IDEA Full Funding Act

It’s critical that we get increased funding for special education services in order to meet the needs of students with disabilities and achieve compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Attempts have been made to make legislative changes for years, but it hasn’t happened. When it was enacted in 1975, the IDEA proposed that federal funding would cover up to 40 percent of the cost of programming for students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The current reality is that federal funding covers approximately 14.7 percent of the costs, creating a shortage in the billions.

In response, the IDEA Full Funding Act was introduced to Congress on March 26th by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Pat Roberts (R-KS). This isn’t the first go-around at increasing funding: Congress has unsuccessfully proposed legislation since 1999. Under the IDEA, students with disabilities who require specialized instruction must receive the services they need without regard to cost. In theory, it sounds fantastic. But when the money isn’t there to pay for those services, the school districts are in a bind and end up providing less than the law requires. It’s like telling a mother of eight that she has $100 to feed her children for the month: she knows what they need, and she wants to give it to them, but she certainly can’t do it appropriately on that budget. Cuts would have to be made, either sacrificing the quantity or quality of the food.

The Impact of Underfunding on Students, Teachers, and Administrators

The lack of special education funding hurts students who don’t receive the services they need, it hurts teachers and itinerant service providers who are overworked or lacking the tools necessary to help their students, and it hurts administrators who are pressured to make up for this lack of funding through local levies and budget cuts.

When school districts can’t secure funding to fill the gap, cuts have to be made. Sometimes cuts come in the form of denying a student eligibility under the IDEA from the start. If the school has fewer students to serve, the cost should, in turn, be lower. Budget cuts can also come in the form of understaffing. Where students are deemed eligible for services, the school may be understaffed to meet the needs of all of those students. For example, a building may need two speech language therapists to be able to fulfill the needs of its special ed students. Since the school district doesn’t have the funds to hire a second therapist, they may end up either failing to implement a properly written IEP (not providing the stated minutes of service), or they may just write in a time allocation that is much less than the child needs, to ensure compliance. Either way, students are underserved.

Another way districts may deal with the lack of funding is by restricting placement options. The IDEA requires that students are placed in an educational setting that is their least restrictive environment, meaning that they should be with typical peers as much as possible, given their needs and circumstances. If, for example, a student with autism can function appropriately in a general education classroom along with the assistance of a one-to-one aide, the school is required to place him there instead of a more restrictive environment. Yet a more restrictive, one-size-fits-all classroom environment might be more cost-effective for the school if they keep all students with a particular category of eligibility (such as autism or emotional disturbance) in one room and share resources. Where a student’s least restrictive environment (LRE) is outside of the district, schools watching their dollars may refuse, insisting that they can educate the student in-house.

The students with disabilities are the ones who are most obviously hurt by underfunding of the IDEA. And a school’s inability to secure funding is not a valid defense to a Due Process Complaint for failure to provide a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in a student’s LRE, as required by the IDEA. Still, we must acknowledge that underfunding does stunt the abilities of well-meaning teachers and administrators, who only have so much time and/or money to go around, and are forced to make budget cuts or do work that they’re not proud of. Something needs to be done to end this cycle of underfunding so that schools can do their job to provide these students with a FAPE in their LRE.

IDEA's Key Provisions and the Importance of Oversight

The key provisions of IDEA - such as individualized education plans (IEPs), which are legally binding documents created for students with disabilities and specify their needs and mandated services - will still exist unless Congress decides to change the law. But the concern among many advocates and families is that consolidating the budget means some states can choose to eliminate necessary services and that enforcement to ensure these and other required services are being provided will be even more difficult.

Every state is required to have at least one Parent Training and Information Center, which provides free support, information, advocacy and dispute resolution for families of children with disabilities. According to Education Week, a Sept. 5 announcement by the Trump administration indicated grants will continue to all centers. Community Parent Resource Centers offer similar services but with a particular focus on students in underserved and low-income communities, where families might have a more difficult time accessing information and resources. Additionally, four out of more than two dozen active State Personnel Development Grants, which aim to increase the pipeline of special education teachers, were canceled; they added up to $6 million, Education Week reported.

The Administration's Perspective

The administration has said it will keep current levels of federal special education funding, and in its recent budget letter to Congress, the administration requested the same amount of special education funding for FY2026 as last year.

The Trump administration says its funding plans will relieve administrative burdens. Ensuring that education supports the development of a strong workforce is an important federal role, she said, but it’s not the only purpose of education.

"Education really is about forming human souls,” Burke said in response to an audience question, “and about really preparing individuals, preparing students to inherit the blessings and liberties of a free society.”

A Call for Vigilance and Action

As anxiety and uncertainty grow, college students and professors in the special education field are preparing for the worst.

Connect with your school district’s special education director for a general interview before a crisis hits to find out the challenges and successes. Ask how they use their distinct federal funding streams and what it allows them to do. Reach out and keep an eye on information from national organizations, such as the Council for Exceptional Children and the Council of Administrators of Special Education. While special education is a fairly bipartisan issue, issues that affect it can be partisan, such as school choice and education funding. Interview people at state Parent Training and Information Centers and Community Parent Resource Centers. Investigate personnel issues: Is your school district seeing a teacher shortage in special education? What is the impact?

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