The End of the Education Department will Impact Students with Disabilities

With recent announcements surrounding Trump’s possible attempt to eliminate the Department of Education, many chronically ill students feel they could be left out in the cold.

America has spent the first month of 2025 in a shoot first, ask questions later kind of mood. One second, we are levying tariffs against Canada and Mexico -- the next we are not. For a moment, it was 100% certain that TikTok would cease to exist. Days later, its death was indefinitely postponed for reasons that remain unclear. Politics in 2025 is defined by bold proposals matched with slightly less bold withdrawals from those same proposals hours or days later. 

Remember when DOGE was going to cut every single dollar of federal funding for grants? And remember when that didn’t happen at all?

So when Elon Musk announced that his Department of Government Efficiency wanted to cut the Department of Education I didn’t think much of it. And to a certain degree, I still doubt it will happen -- especially since strong opposition has already appeared on both sides of the aisle. But for millions of students with disabilities, this is not just an interesting possibility. And for millions of their caretakers, even a small chance of losing support is a small chance that their lives will be ripped apart.

As president of the Autoimmune Alliance and, more importantly, as the son of a woman forced out of college partly due to her illness, I know firsthand how important it is for students to have the tools they need to thrive. Students struggle enough when they deal with life-threatening illnesses at the same age most of us are just learning how to make friends or ride a bike. Cutting these programs will impact people I know and trust.

Most of Washington DC views the Department of Education as a bureaucratic piñata. In reality, it’s the glue fighting against all odds to hold together America’s promise of equal opportunity. 

Take its two biggest programs: Title I and the enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Action ACT (IDEA). Title I is a federal program that provides supplemental funds to schools to support low-income students and give them a quality education. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a landmark federal law ensuring that children with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education tailored to their needs. 

Together, they provide $28 billion annually to schools serving low-income students and children with disabilities. That’s roughly 10% of total education funding—not exactly monopoly money. Cutting them would force states to ask underfunded school districts to magically solve the massive problems their students face due to a lack of resources. 

Losing access to all of the rights afforded to them under IDEA would be devastating for students with disabilities. Enacted in 1975 as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act this law mandates that schools provide individualized education programs for eligible students. These guarantee access to general education curricula in the least restrictive environment possible. Over 7.5 million U.S. students—15% of the K-12 population—rely on IDEA protections today. 

Then there’s the department’s role as a civil rights enforcer. The Office for Civil Rights isn’t some woke boogeyman — it’s the reason schools can’t shrug off discrimination complaints like a bad Yelp review. Cutting this would unsurprisingly create a few problems. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Losing the department and its funding also means losing one of the many tools in the federal toolbox used to force school districts that are not helping students with disabilities to do so.

And let’s talk student loans. The department currently manages $1.6 trillion in federal student debt, a flawed but critical lifeline for students who aren’t trust-fund beneficiaries. Handing this system over to banks would be like outsourcing firefighting to arsonists. 

There is a lot of debate about whether or not FAFSA has contributed to the sky-high tuition costs currently plaguing modern college students. But for students with disabilities who are already strapped for cash as a result of their medical treatments, the idea of paying for their own college without any assistance is untenable. 

All of this having been said I have some great news -- it is extremely unlikely that any of this will happen. Most policy experts agree -- to the non-surprise of anyone who watched even an episode of Schoolhouse Rock -- that the president lacks the power to annihilate an entire government department because he says so. 

However, knowing what can happen if we lay down and don’t fight is good motivation to keep going. If we keep fighting hard and keep advocating for ourselves, we can prevent any of this from happening. 

For students with disabilities, preventing this is not a need. It is a must.