eliminate the entire<\/a> Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), including\u00a0Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)\u00a0and\u00a0Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA).<\/p>\n\u201cThese cuts are part of a larger pattern that put students with disabilities\u2019 right to a free and appropriate public education at risk,\u201d said Beth Swedeen, Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities (BPDD) Executive Director.<\/p>\n
Students with disabilities have a right to an education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Before IDEA students with disabilities were often refused admission to public schools or warehoused in substandard facilities without a standard curriculum and few if any rights. The U.S. Department of Education has primary responsibility for making sure states and schools are upholding the civil rights of students with disabilities to get a free and appropriate public education. Advocates worry federal staffing cuts will mean little oversight or enforcement of IDEA.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerations of experience has proven what families have always known. Students with disabilities can learn and excel with the right supports,\u201d said Swedeen. \u201cWhen students with disabilities get the education they need, we all benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI used special education supports. I learned differently, but I learned the same things,\u201d said Sydney Badeau, BPDD Board Chair. \u201cWe needed a little extra help while in school to be successful now. Why would we not want the next generation of students with disabilities to have the same opportunities? Students with disabilities are part of America\u2019s future too.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March, the department laid off 40% of the staff responsible for investigating parent\u2019s complaints about schools that aren\u2019t doing enough to make sure their students\u2019 right to an education is honored–50% of cases are related to special education. In September, the Department clawed back $11M in previously awarded federal grants specifically to improve special education.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BPDD Statement on U.S. Dept. of Education decision to fire federal workers responsible for special education quality. October 13, 2025 Press Contact: Beth Swedeen, beth.swedeen@wisconsin.gov, (608) 220-2974; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sydney Badeau, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16341,"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16337\/revisions\/16341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-bpdd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}