Protecting Education for Children with Disabilities

Floor Speech

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to lead this Special Order hour and to speak about a matter of great importance to millions of American children. With everything going on, it is easy to overlook what is happening at the Department of Education.

Today, I would like to highlight the concerns of parents who have children living with disabilities. They are scared, concerned, and confused.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, is the Federal law that ensures children with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education tailored to their unique learning needs.

IDEA provides services to children from birth to age 21. Since its enactment in 1975, IDEA focused on providing children with disabilities the same educational opportunities as all other students. It allows the 7.5 million children living with disabilities who rely on services to receive early intervention and remain in the least restrictive environments alongside their nondisabled peers.

It provides grants and helps parents with their rights and to know what is legally required of schools to develop individualized educational plans, detailing specific goals, services, and support for students.

IDEA requires that teachers be highly qualified with ongoing training, ensuring they meet the unique needs of students with disabilities. These services are there to provide students with postsecondary education, employment, and independent living.

IDEA addresses past failures to educate students with disabilities. I am old enough to remember a time when students with special needs were educated in the basement of schools or outright denied entry. Before IDEA, millions of children with disabilities were denied an education and often refused admission to schools or even programs.

Today, children with disabilities are able to attend any public school and receive services at no cost to their parents. They have legal and civil rights protections for their children under this landmark law.

On March 20, 2025, the President signed an executive order directing the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, to facilitate the dismantling of the Department of Education, which raises significant questions about the future of IDEA and the impact on the education of these 7.5 million children.

The students who would be hurt the most by weakening the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are the children who are the most vulnerable. In nearly every State, public schools are primarily funded by State and local governments with local property taxes playing a crucial role.

Without IDEA and Federal resources, these students could end up in underfunded schools that lack resources, expertise, or accountability to provide the special education services and supports they require.

IDEA is Federal law, which means that even without funding from the Department of Education, State and local districts will have to figure out how they will make up this deficit. They will still have to provide services and likely have to cut other programs.

This could mean a student with dyslexia would no longer receive daily reading interventions. A student who was deaf or hard of hearing would not have a sign language interpreter. A student who just needed a little bit of speech therapy in order to be a part of the class would not have that, making it nearly impossible to follow daily lessons or participate in discussions.

Weakening IDEA would not only cut funding or reduce services, but it would threaten the future of these students who with just the right amount of support and accommodations could thrive.

The stakes are too high. We must protect the Department of Education, and we must protect IDEA. This administration has yet to lay out any detailed plan for the future of IDEA.

I have serious concerns about moving services for students with disabilities to HHS because then they are only being viewed through a medical lens. They would only be diagnosed and would not be seen as students first and given the resources they needed to survive.

Today, I would like to elevate the stories of my colleagues who have children and families living in their district who rely so heavily on the services that the Federal Government provides.

Adams), a member of the Committee on Education and Workforce.

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Adams for her remarks. As she noted, I was a classroom teacher for over 15 years. I know exactly how important these resources and supports are. I had students who had severe learning disabilities but who were able to thrive with the appropriate accommodations and the resources and support in the classroom.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to note that in my State of Connecticut, in 2025, we received approximately $160 million from the Federal Government in order to facilitate services for students with exceptionalities. A State like Connecticut would have to fill that gap in order to make sure these students continue to receive services. What is happening with the Department of Education is of grave concern to me.

Bynum).

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Oregon for her support.

To the gentlewoman's point, the IDEA has never been fully funded as the Federal Government promised. In the State of Oregon, they received $162 million in 2025, which is just a fraction of what it costs to educate students with special needs.

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, as our colleague on the committee from Oregon makes her way to the podium, I will just read an excerpt from an email that I got from a parent in my district:

As a special needs mom, the current news of the cuts happening in the special education department are frightening to me. I am not well-versed in politics or government, and I don't know how or if this will affect us in Connecticut, but I am my child's only advocate, and I can tell you that our special education system is strained.

Please put yourself in the shoes of a special needs parent who relies on the staff to tell them what happened at school because their child cannot. I ask that you place yourself in the shoes of a parent who cannot afford out-of-pocket services and relies on the public school system to provide speech, occupational, and behavioral services.

Please advocate for my child. I don't even know how to. I need you to do this for them.

Bonamici).
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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Brown. I think she knows I will always fight for RJ and all the kids like him.
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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say as a teacher, when students with disabilities enter public schools, they can't be turned away. You have to figure out what their needs are. You have to meet with parents and the team to come up with a plan and teach those students.

Unlike charter schools, for-profit schools, or even some private schools, which can decide that a student doesn't belong in their environment, at public schools, all kids belong there. We just have to figure out how to teach them.

Moore).

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Mrs. HAYES. It has been floated, but we haven't seen any concrete plans, which is part of the problem.

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Mrs. HAYES. Yes. Many employees were RIF'd at the Department of Education. I think even more concerning is the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education, the number of staff who were fired.

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her remarks.

I will say that I am uniquely positioned to speak about some of the things that were brought up about what happened to children before IDEA was passed.

Before becoming a teacher, and, actually, while I was a teacher, I worked at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut, which is a facility, an institution, that was established in the 1930s for children with developmental and mental disabilities.

Many of those people, who are now adults, became institutionalized because they were placed in this facility. With their disabilities, had a law like this been in place, they could have been able to thrive and live in their community, but we put them behind walls in institutions. We can never go back to a time when that happens again.

I thank Ms. Moore for joining us tonight.

Mr. KENNEDY of New York. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me thank Representative Hayes for her leadership in hosting this Special Order hour.

This past November, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, an incredible milestone that serves as a reminder of the promise we make to our Nation's children that every student, no matter who they are or how they learn, deserves equal access to a quality education.

Yet, this anniversary comes at a time when the Trump administration continues its systematic efforts to eliminate the Department of Education, gut the Office of Special Education Programs, and undermine IDEA, a landmark law that fundamentally changed how we educate children with disabilities.

Since 1975, IDEA has provided immeasurable support to children with disabilities, particularly for those in their earliest and most formative years. IDEA part C, a Federal program closely intertwined the Medicaid, provides early intervention from birth to age 3, oftentimes the difference between a child meeting developmental milestones or falling behind.

These Federal dollars change millions of lives across the country every single year. However, Trump and congressional Republicans have told American families that these investments don't matter, that their child's future does not count, and that Federal dollars are better spent elsewhere.

I am here to remind the American people that the President's shameless assault on early intervention and Medicaid paints a grim picture for the future of special education and for the future of millions of children.

As an occupational therapist myself, I have worked with children with developmental disabilities in their earliest years, and I have seen what happens when we make good on our promise to invest in special education and early intervention. Early intervention care alters the course of a child's life for the better, dramatically improves health and educational outcomes, and gives working families the support they desperately need.

Republicans in this body need to remember the sacred promise made to children with disabilities 50 years ago and stand by it rather than turn a blind eye. Democrats will not sit idly by as this administration jeopardizes our children's futures and undermines the fundamental right to an education.

These aren't budget cuts. These are broken promises to children with disabilities. We cannot build a stronger nation by cutting off critical support for those who need it most. We must fully fund and support the essential mission and fulfill the commitment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

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Mrs. HAYES. Tlaib), who is a champion for children.

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Mrs. HAYES. Simon), to speak on this very important issue.

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California and again thank her for cosponsoring that piece of legislation with me. I understand that if a child can't see the board, they can't learn. Her enthusiasm when I brought it to her is exactly why we need people from diverse perspectives in this Chamber.

I now yield to the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Tokuda). I thank her so much for the work that she does on behalf of children in her home State.

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury), a fearless advocate for children and her constituents.

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Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New Mexico and all my colleagues who showed up tonight. I really thought I would be standing here for an hour reading emails from my constituents and telling the stories of the hundreds of students with disabilities that I have taught in my classroom, telling the stories of how we met them where they were and made accommodations so that they could thrive and really learn.

I can't express to you what it feels like as a teacher when you have a student who is struggling or has a disability and you see the moment where they get it, the moment where the lesson breaks through and they are receiving the information in the same way as the other students in the classroom.

I want to make sure that those students can continue to be educated alongside their nondisabled peers and not put in a basement or behind a wall at an institution. I also want to make sure that even if a child doesn't have a strong parent advocate or a strong family at home that they, too, will have people in their public schools fighting for them, that they, too, will still have the services that they need and deserve.

The Secretary of Education has often said that her final mission is to close the Department. I would like to put her and everyone else on notice that I, too, am on a mission, on a mission to make sure that not only the kids that were in my classroom and in my State of Connecticut, but kids all across the country know that they have the right to a high-quality public education, know that it is our responsibility to make sure that they thrive and are prepared for life and being self- sufficient.

Again, I thank all of my colleagues for showing up tonight, and I will continue to fight not only for these children and these families, but for all of the educators who stand in front of them and pour their heart out so that they can meet their needs.

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