Education Department staff cuts could limit options for families of kids with disabilities

WASHINGTON — For parents of kids with disabilities, advocating for their child can be complicated, time-consuming — and expensive. Under President Donald Trump, the Education Department’s staff has been cut approximately in half — including in the Office for Civil Rights, whose attorneys are charged with investigating complaints of discrimination against kids with disabilities. “By reducing the number of employees to handle cases, by putting stipulations on certain cases, it only makes it feel intensified.” Education Department officials insist the staff reductions will not affect civil rights investigations and the layoffs were “strategic decisions.” In her state of Alabama, Carter said families face an uphill battle to finding legal representation. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit “They don’t have the money for an attorney,” she said. But state and local agencies haven’t always had the capacity or understanding to handle education disability complaints, Stewart said, since those cases so often went to the U.S. Education Department.