06/21/2026
More coverage of plans to move special education programs out of the U.S. Department of Education.
“Children with disabilities are not a diagnosis,” said Ms. Smith Lee, now the co-director of policy and advocacy at National Down Syndrome Congress. “These are students first and they need to be educated and they need to be educated alongside their general education peers — and the federal offices that oversee the education need to be in the same department.”
Alienated by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims about autism, advocates for disabled students are sounding the alarm about the Trump administration's shifting special education programs to his department.
