A national Civil Rights campaign for Special Education

Coalition Members

• The Advocacy Institute
• Laquana A., parent of M.M.
• Alicia B., parent of J.H.
• Boston Teachers Union
• Education Austin
• Tiffany G., parent of I.G.
• Anna H., parent of Z.H., B.H., and L.I.
• Evelyn P., parent of D.P.
• Perla S., parent of A.S.
• Madison Teachers Inc.
• Manuela P., parent of A.P.
• Martha S., parent of J.S.
• Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Assoc.
• National Disability Rights Network
• Oakland Education Association
• United Teachers Los Angeles

The Promise

In 1975, the federal government made a promise to America’s students: that all children with disabilities have available to them a free and appropriate public education with education and services designed to meet their unique needs. Congress also made a promise to states and school districts: that they would cover 40% of the additional cost required to provide those necessary services for students with disabilities. In addition to its promises under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the federal government also promised to protect the civil rights of students with disabilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act: the needs of students with disabilities must be met in a comparable way as the needs of non-disabled students.

In nearly 50 years, the federal government has repeatedly failed to deliver on these promises. When Congress fails to fulfill its promise to fund IDEA at 40% and to protect the civil rights of students with disabilities, schools, students, and families suffer.

Decades of underfunding special education means that every year, districts are forced to pay an increasing share of the cost of special education, out of equally inadequate state and local funds. This results in districts being forced to cut programs that benefit all students (including students with disabilities) in order to fund special education. Parents are left feeling pitted against each other – special education against general education – when in fact, all students benefit from an adequately funded IDEA program, that allows all students to thrive. Add in the fact that there is no funding provided for Section 504 supports – which should be provided to those with a wide range of disabilities, including those experiencing trauma — and the issue becomes even more stark.

As we return to schools in the midst of a pandemic that is projected to continue to kill tens of thousands more Americans, our communities must be fully funded in order to recover from the devastating toll that COVID-19 has taken on all our students, but especially on our students with disabilities and most especially on our students of color with disabilities. We must ensure that special attention is provided to this often forgotten group as we return to schools and emerge from the pandemic.

In response to this deep need, a diverse coalition of parents of students with disabilities, disability rights organizations, teachers’ unions, and community organizations from across the US, are demanding that the federal government step in to fulfill its promises to students, schools, and families: protect the civil rights of students with disabilities; provide adequate funding for students with disabilities, regardless of whether those disabilities fall under IDEA or Section 504; and to pay particular attention to protecting the civil rights of students of color with disabilities that have been so profoundly and disproportionately negatively impacted by the decades long failure of Congress to fulfill its promises.