Betsy DeVos shows her true colors
Education Department won’t give up blocking efforts to help disabled minority students
For well over a year, DeVos has been blocking the implementation of the law designed to help disabled minority students despite repeated efforts by supporters to force compliance.
Those regulations, established under the 2016 Equity in IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act), went into effect in January 2017, but states were given until July 2018 to comply with a standardized program for monitoring how districts identified and served minority students with disabilities. Two days before the full implementation deadline, DeVos pulled the plug, citing concerns that the methodology could incentivize racial quotas, leaving states and students in limbo.
Repealing verdict
DeVos’ delay of the regulation prompted a lawsuit by COPAA (Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates), COPAA v. DeVos, which the Department of Education lost in early March. The Department of Justice filed a notice to appeal the outcome in May.
The delay also raised the ire of the Congressional Black Caucus. Last July the Caucus issued a letterto DeVos and Assistant Secretary Collett noting the Caucus was “deeply troubled by the Department’s response to comments and justification of the delay asserting that racial bias does not exist in special education.”
And the National Association of State Directors of Special Education Inc., wrote a letter to DeVos last February imploring her not to stop the process as states were gearing up to implement the standard CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos shows her true colors | Salon.com
