Disability News - December 6, 2025
Editor's Note: The disability community is increasingly preferring to use identity-first language (disabled person) in place of person-first language (person with a disability). This is because many in the community view disability as being a core component of identity, much like race and gender. Some members of the community, such as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, still prefer person-first language. Both should be considered valid. Articles shared in this newsletter may contain one or the other (or both) depending on the author's preference, and if they themselves have a disability.
This Disability Education Law Turned 50 Today. Disability Advocates Want More. by Julia Métraux on November 29, 2025 at Mother Jones
"Many disability advocates are concerned about the state of education for disabled kids. Continued attempts to dismantle the Department of Education by President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, as well as attempts to fire their staff, put the oversight that disabled kids’ needs are met at risk. Such oversight includes putting districts on notice for funding if they overpenalize Black disabled students, for instance. Then, there is the longstanding issue that IDEA has never been fully funded, meaning that the federal government is not funding IEPs to 40 percent."
A Disabled Child’s Mom Reported Him Missing. He Was Locked Away by Federal Immigration Authorities for 48 Days. by Leslie Rangel on November 24, 2025 at The Barbed Wire
"In early October, Emmanuel walked away from his mom’s fruit stand to find a bathroom. Garcia looked for him all over the city, and after several hours of coming up empty handed, she filed a missing person’s report with the Houston Police Department. The boy was found by Houston firefighters nearly 24 hours later. But instead of reuniting him with his mom, the police department turned him over to immigration authorities, and Emmanuel ended up in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where he remained for 48 days, despite his mother’s pleas for him to be released into her care."
Hepatitis B vaccine guidance set to be rolled back for US babies: what the science says by Mariana Lenharo & Heidi Ledford on December 5, 2025 at Nature
"Members of a top US vaccine advisory panel voted today to roll back a decades-old recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine shortly after birth — a measure that has been associated with a sharp decline in mother-to-child transmission of the hepatitis B virus, which causes liver disease."
Advocates sound alarm over rollback of civil rights enforcement at schools by Chris Burrell on December 04, 2025 at GBH
"Education advocates in Massachusetts are concerned that the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and cut staff are making it difficult to investigate complaints of civil rights violations."
Seven Trends Threatening People With Disabilities by Andrew Oliver on December 3, 2025 (on his newsletter)
"Various scattered developments have continued to converge into deeper trends that threaten the lives of people with disabilities. It’s hard to discern the real threats, let alone know what to do about them, so here’s my effort to help make sense of it."
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