Tell Congress to Stop the Dismantling of the Department of Education
I'm not waiting until Saturday for this one. Everyone needs to write to their Senators and Representatives NOW and tell them you do not approve of the U.S. Department of Education moving the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
These changes will only harm children with disabilities and will in no way help anyone. The removal of these offices from the Department of Education makes it easier to exclude students with disabilities from schools by making it harder to fight for their rights to be included.
More information in the following articles:
Moving Special Education and Civil Rights Out of Education Department Risks a Patchwork of Rights for Students With Disabilities by Jackie Dilworth on June 16, 2026 at The Arc
"Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced plans to move the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The Arc of the United States warns that the move disregards federal law placing the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the Department of Education and would make it harder for students with disabilities to access services, resolve discrimination, and hold states accountable under IDEA, the 50-year-old law that guarantees a free appropriate public education tailored to each child’s unique needs."
RFK Jr. Will Oversee Disability Education Policy by Julia Métraux on June 16, 2026 at Mother Jones
"Even setting aside who runs them—Kennedy at HHS, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at the Justice Department—the new agencies aren’t appropriate choices to oversee those functions, experts say. “HHS and DOJ have important roles, but they weren’t built to replace the Department of Education’s school-specific expertise,” said Robyn Linscott, The Arc’s director of education and family policy, in a statement. “Moving [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] oversight into HHS pushes students with disabilities toward a medical model, where disability is treated as a diagnosis to manage instead of a natural part of human life.” "
This Isn’t Reform, It’s Abandonment. Statement by the Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund June 16, 2026
"DREDF condemns this action in the strongest possible terms. This is illegal. This is a betrayal of fifty years of hard-won rights. This treats disability as a medical problem instead of a civil rights matter. This abandons the students who most need educational justice. "
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