My neighborhood public school, where my children attend, is a diverse one – in race, ethnicity, income, language, and ability. My children have friends and peers who receive extra testing time, are allowed fidgets during class, have preferential seating at the front of the room or near the teacher, and are encouraged to take breaks throughout the day. There are paraeducators in their classrooms who provide small group and one-on-one support. The students in the school’s “learning center” (what the district calls self-contained classrooms) join the general education classes for learning experiences and celebrations.

But it wasn’t always this way. If you attended public school before the mid-1970s, you would have seen and interacted with very, very few children with disabilities. In the decades before Congress passed in 1975 the law that would later become the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, only about 1 in 5 children with disabilities were educated in U.S. public schools.

Today, public schools serve more than 8 million students with disabilities — that’s about 15% of all public school students

This month, we mark the 50th anniversary of this landmark law, which transformed public schools by guaranteeing millions of children with disabilities the right to education and the services they need to learn. Today, public schools serve more than 8 million students with disabilities — that’s about 15% of all public school students.

We’ve come a long way, but our work is far from finished. Many students with disabilities do not experience safe and supportive school climates. Many families are still fighting for their children to be educated in general education classrooms, in light of research demonstrating that inclusion benefits everyone. And too many children with disabilities still don’t receive sufficient support to read and do math on grade-level and graduate high school. This is especially true for students of color, who make up a sizeable portion of the students identified as having a disability and who are too often denied the services and supports they deserve and are legally entitled to under the federal law.

About half of students with disabilities are children of color. These students have unique educational experiences, due to their multiple and intersecting identities, that are substantively different from those of both students of color without disabilities and white students with disabilities. For example:

• Black students with disabilities account for 2% of total enrollment but 9% of out-of-school suspensions
• Black students are more than two times as likely as white students to experience exclusionary discipline
• Black students with disabilities are less likely to be educated in general education classrooms than white students with disabilities
• 1 in 5 Black students with a disability didn’t receive sufficient supports and dropped out of high school, versus 1 in 8 white students with disabilities

The rights of children with disabilities are under threat — jeopardizing decades of progress and the work that still needs to be done. Under the direction of a president who regularly uses hateful speech toward and about people with disabilities, the administration recently attempted to gut the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the Department of Education agency responsible for the oversight, accountability, and enforcement of our  nation’s special education laws, and the Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal civil rights law. Although the deal Congress reached to re-open the federal government reverses these devastating staff cuts and prevent future federal layoffs through January 30, 2026, the future of those positions remains unclear. And just this week, the Trump administration has begun the process of dismantling the Department of Education — with the eventual stated goal of moving OSERS to Health and Human Services, although they do not have authority to unilaterally do so.

IDEA has a long history of bipartisan support, and proposed legislation to fully fund IDEA has bipartisan support today. The administration’s actions threaten the education — and future — of millions of children with disabilities. Those of us who believe that a just society is one that includes full participation of all people must fight to keep the promise we made 50 years ago to students with disabilities and their families.