August 2025 Policy News Round-Up

With Congress on summer recess, administrative actions took center stage this month. Learn more about what NCLD was up to in August.

Significant Disproportionality Data At Risk

A notice published to the Federal Register indicates the U.S. Department of Education (USED) plans to remove a requirement for states to collect and report on racial disparities in special education. This data is part of a state requirement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as a condition for receiving federal funding. It is also known for identifying overrepresentation and underrepresentation of racial groups in special education, which the field refers to as “significant disproportionality”. Significant disproportionality in special education identification, placement, and school discipline impacts districts nationwide, and this data is extremely important for the public to identify when this occurs. Removing the data collection requirement would eliminate essential transparency for equity issues. Read the full proposal here.  

Federal Judge Reverses Anti-DEI Efforts at USED

A federal judge established that the Trump Administration’s attempts to block diversity programs at the U.S. Department of Education were unlawful. In February, USED issued a letter claiming that federal law forbids schools from considering race in any area of education, an action in line with the Administration’s pushback to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the government. The Administration also released an order for schools to state they would comply with these views. Although courts have already blocked enforcement of this letter and order, the judge’s recent ruling forces USED to reverse their actions and declares the actions of the Administration were against the law. 

USED Civil Rights Staff Set to Return to the Office

Staff from the USED Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will return to the Department next month after being cut in March’s reduction in force (RIF) order. This reinstatement comes after a federal judge ordered that USED must be stored in order to “carry out its statutory functions”. The RIF left OCR without any staff and with several regional offices shut down. This had a major negative impact on students across the country, as OCR is tasked with following up on civil rights complaints and investigating claims of wrongdoing by schools and districts. It is still unclear, however, what the scope of this reinstatement is and if OCR will be back to its pre-RIF capacity. 

Education Waiver Requests in Indiana, Oklahoma, and Iowa

In an unprecedented and likely harmful move, USED invited states to submit waivers in late July, allowing them to loosen their requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the primary education law in the country. In response, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Iowa have indicated they will submit waivers to USED. Oklahoma’s waiver request is seeking exemption from administering mandatory assessments, which could have negative impacts on school accountability. In Indiana and Iowa, the waiver requests focus on combining federal funding streams into “block” grants rather than being allocated to specific programs, meaning that program requirements associated with each grant’s funding would be removed. NCLD has joined with other groups to oppose these efforts because of the negative impacts on students with disabilities. 

Join Our Advocacy Efforts!

NCLD’s Action Center enables you to contact your Members of Congress and make your voice heard on issues important to students with disabilities. New on the Action Center includes the opportunity to ask your Representative to endorse the RISE Act, fund all parts of IDEA, and keep it at ED in FY 2026.

ICYMI 

• NCLD submitted comments to the Department of Education on proposed priorities for advancing AI at USED. 
• NCLD’s CEO, Jackie Rodriguez, was quoted in an article from EdWeek on the Trump Administration’s cancellation of education grants. 
• Our summer intern, Alex Ellison, wrote a blog post on OCR’s investigations into higher education accessibility.

What We’re Reading:

• $5 Billion in Federal K–12 Formula Funding Hangs in the Balance Between White House and Senate Proposals (Learning Policy Institute) 
• Public Education Under Threat: 4 Trump Administration Actions To Watch in the 2025-26 School Year (Center for American Progress)

Inclusion You Can Count On: How A New Data Dashboard Improved Special Education in South Bend (Harvard University Center for Education Policy Research)