Since the first day of class for most schools in Michigan last week, Marcie Lipsitt's phone has been ringing nonstop with parents distraught about cuts to their children's special education services.
A new round of special education cuts were taking hold, prompted by a 5% reduction in federal funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), said Lipsitt, a longtime advocate for disabled children and co-chair of the Michigan Alliance for Special Education.
Lipsitt said it means that many schools have eliminated resource rooms where children can go to get help in areas such as math, reading, writing and organizational skills. Many schools will have fewer speech, occupational or physical therapists, along with social workers and school psychologists, which means students who previously received speech therapy twice a week might only receive it once week, for example. And in some general education classrooms that had two teachers – one for the whole class and one specifically to support students with special needs – the special education teacher has been eliminated.
"For Michigan, it hit like a ton of bricks," Lipsitt said. "Conditions are eroding and children are not being allowed to become taxpayers. They're not being given access to independence, being productive, being ready for a global workforce."
Across the country, advocates for children with disabilities are grappling with the