Protecting Education for Children with Disabilities

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Hayes for leading this important conversation and bringing her expertise as National Teacher of the Year to the Congress and to the Education Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I have been an education advocate for decades, and I speak with students, parents, and educators in Congress and at home in Oregon, and I can't count the number of times where parents have said to me: Please, please fully fund IDEA.

According to the Department of Education, Secretary McMahon is now exploring additional partnerships to move the administration of special education programs under IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, to other Federal agencies. The most likely choice for this unconstitutional and illegal transfer? It is to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. Speaker, this means that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., would be in charge of administering IDEA. This is the man who disregarded established science to advance policies based on conspiracy theories, including claiming that Tylenol and vaccines cause autism and that autism destroys families.

This agency should not be administering funding or providing guidance to schools on educating students with disabilities, especially with its current Secretary.

IDEA is an education program, not a medical program. It is designed to provide students with disabilities access to a free and appropriate public education, often through individualized education programs, or IEPs.

Those with the expertise and data to best administer the program are already at the Department of Education, or at least they were until Secretary McMahon fired them.

A special education teacher in Beaverton, Oregon, recently wrote to my office. She is extremely concerned, as are so many, about the Trump administration's plans for special education, and this is what she said: ``When I tell you that schools are in dire straits already, I mean it--and yet I know it can get worse.

I am terrified for my students. The mass layoffs and restructuring within the Department of Education's Office of Special Education have left only a fraction of the staff to manage billions in IDEA funds and ensure States follow the law.''

She continued: ``Without Federal oversight, States will have less accountability, fewer resources, and more leeway to deny or reduce services. Families will be left without recourse, and the promise of a free and appropriate public education will be broken.''

These are challenging enough times for students, families, and schools. In Portland, the public school district recently redirected an additional $25 million from their general fund to fill the gap to help provide students with disabilities the resources that they need that State and Federal funding aren't covering, and it is still not enough.

The Trump administration's proposals to disrupt the administration on such an important program risks further harming the people we represent. A mother in Portland wrote to me and said that she is a full-time caregiver, has two sons with disabilities, and that she has only been able to work 2 of the last 8 years because of the lack of reliable care.

Unfortunately, she was just laid off again from her most recent job.

She told me: ``We are exhausted and doing everything we can, but the system leaves too much on families.''

She begged us to protect access to services for students with disabilities and to continue advocating for these children and their caregivers. In her words: ``We need policies that recognize the reality we're living, not ones that make it harder.''

These are the families, teachers, and the people who will be affected by decisions we make about IDEA. What we should be doing is fully funding IDEA, not disrupting the support that already exists by forcing schools and families to work with multiple Federal agencies instead of one.

HHS is not equipped to manage this critical program. I will keep fighting. I will keep fighting the Trump administration's efforts to abandon and dismantle the Department of Education and its core responsibility, especially its core responsibility to students with disabilities.

I thank Representative Hayes for her leadership.

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