I didn’t always plan to be an educator working with students with disabilities. Instead of spending years studying to be a teacher and earning an undergraduate degree in the field, I pursued an alternative certification program. After only a few weeks of training and no experience with students with disabilities, I was given a caseload of a dozen students with individualized education plans (IEPs).

There’s Already a Teacher Shortage

Systemic failures and a historic lack of investment has caused a teacher shortage and led to the need for alternative certification programs like mine. I came to realize schools are desperate, and I was told an inexperienced teacher is better than no teacher at all.

My caseload included students with autism and other developmental disabilities, such as dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), and emotional impairment disorders. While I was able to complete my master’s in education concurrently and ensured my students received the mandated services, my students deserved more than I was able to provide.

My path to becoming an educator and my experience in the classroom highlights the need for leadership at the federal level. As a former special education teacher, I know that dismantling the Department of Education will exacerbate the teacher shortage and will jeopardize the resources and supports students with disabilities need.

As a former special education teacher, I know that dismantling the Department of Education will exacerbate the teacher shortage and will jeopardize the resources and supports students with disabilities need.

Put simply, I know we need more teachers because I was in a school that struggled to put a teacher in every classroom. I know we need more funding for students with disabilities because my students were falling behind. I know we need accountability and oversight because I worked with families that have gone from school to school looking to receive the services their students deserve.

But these priorities, high-quality teachers, well-resourced classrooms, and accountable schools, clearly do not align with the administration’s effort to gut the Department of Education.

Instead of investing in our most underserved students, the administration callously suggests that crucial statutorily required programs be shifted to other agencies. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which directly supports students with disabilities, as well as Title I funding for low-income schools, and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which safeguards students from discrimination, are all at risk. Moving these programs to other agencies without the necessary staff, resources, or expertise would harm our students with disabilities.

Our nation’s students deserve better. In fact, IDEA acknowledges the need for more investment and recommends Congress contribute 40% of the average per pupil expenditures for students with disabilities. Instead, Congress has consistently provided less than 15%.

What is IDEA and Title I Funding For?

To provide a high-quality education for students with disabilities, we are not only talking about teachers, notebooks, and textbooks. Funding must consider a host of resources beyond traditional staffing needs and standard instructional materials.

For example, students with disabilities often require assistive technology or services like occupational and speech therapy. In my classroom, many of my students used speech-to-text or text-to-speech software that enabled them to read grade level content. Some of these students also worked with a speech therapist, as one’s verbal ability is closely associated with reading comprehension. Ensuring students have access to these crucial assistive services requires investment from local, state, and federal sources.

A weakened Department of Education may prevent my students from accessing these critical supports.

The need for investment is evident in student outcomes, as recent NAEP scores for students with disabilities indicate no improvements and more than half of school districts nationwide do not have enough special education teachers.

As districts continue to face budget shortfalls and student outcomes stall, accountability and data collection, critical components of the Department of Education, are as important as ever. To qualify for special education services, families, teachers, medical professionals, and administrators must work together to agree on a students’ IEP. As a special education teacher, I have participated in this process many times. While it can be arduous, there are countless checks and balances to ensure students are treated fairly.

What Does the Office of Civil Rights Do?

Students of color continue to be disproportionately identified for special education. The Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education is crucial to address this disparity. Disproportionality is also a major concern in discipline as Black students are three times more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled. With over 22,000 complaints submitted to OCR in the last fiscal year, families deserve an effective and responsive Department of Education that is committed to protecting each and every student.  However, the current efforts to dismantle the agency will prevent families from seeking recourse and make it more difficult to hold schools accountable.

Families deserve an effective and responsive Department of Education that is committed to protecting each and every student.

By eliminating the agency responsible for distributing funding, protecting students’ civil rights, and holding schools accountable, the administration is ignoring decades of advocacy and telling my students their success is not a priority.

Eli Smolen is a government affairs intern at EdTrust