Protecting IDEA’s Promise: What Federal Changes Could Mean for Students with Disabilities in Ohio

By Troy Hunter, President & CEO, ElevateDD 

For over 50 years, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA, has shaped the foundation of special education in the United States.  

Before IDEA, many children with disabilities were denied access to public education. Some were placed in institutions. Others were educated separately, if they were educated at all. Families often had few formal rights, limited pathways to challenge decisions, and little assurance that their children would receive the supports needed to learn.  

IDEA changed that history.

Passed in 1975 as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and later renamed IDEA, the law established a clear national promise: children with disabilities have the right to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.  

That means students with disabilities are not only entitled to services, but to meaningful access, individualized supports, family participation, and the opportunity to learn alongside their peers whenever appropriate.  

In Ohio, this promise reaches thousands of children and families every day.

More than 257,000 K–12 students, more than 25,000 preschoolers, and nearly 30,000 infants and toddlers receive services connected to IDEA. These services support children from birth through age 21, beginning with early intervention, continuing into preschool and K–12 special education, and helping students prepare for adulthood, employment, independence, and community life.  

IDEA is carried out locally, but it depends on coordination at every level.

Families work with early intervention teams, preschool programs, school districts, teachers, therapists, service coordinators, intervention specialists, administrators, and state agencies. In Ohio, the Department of Education and Workforce, the Department of Children and Youth, local districts, county boards, providers, and community partners all play important roles in making the system work.  

The U.S. Department of Education has also played a critical role in this structure.

Through the Office of Special Education Programs and related federal offices, the Department helps distribute IDEA funds, issue guidance, monitor state implementation, support technical assistance, invest in personnel preparation, and promote consistency in how federal special education rights are understood and enforced across the country.  

This federal role does not replace the work of states, schools, educators, or families. It does not write individual IEPs or decide what every classroom should look like. But it does help ensure that IDEA remains a national civil rights and education law, not a set of promises that varies widely depending on where a child lives.  

What the New Federal Agreements Mean

On June 16, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education announced new interagency agreements with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Justice.  

According to the Department, HHS will partner with the Department of Education on special education and rehabilitative services. DOJ will partner with the Department of Education on civil rights enforcement, student privacy protection, and training and advisory services.  

The Department described these agreements as an effort to reduce bureaucracy, improve coordination, and better align federal resources. The announcement also states that the Department of Education will retain its statutory authorities and that federal obligations to enforce laws protecting individuals with disabilities will continue.  

For families, educators, advocates, and state leaders, the most important question is how these agreements will be implemented in practice.

Special education is complex. Families often navigate multiple systems at once: education, early childhood, health, disability services, transportation, workforce supports, and adult services. Strong coordination across agencies can be helpful and necessary.  

At the same time, any major changes to how federal special education, rehabilitative services, civil rights enforcement, or student privacy responsibilities are administered must be carefully evaluated for their impact on continuity, accountability, clarity, and access for families.  

The guiding questions should remain centered on children, families, students, and adults with disabilities:

• Will families continue to know where to go for help? 

• Will states and schools continue to receive clear guidance? 

• Will children experience continuity in services from early intervention to preschool to K–12 and beyond? 

• Will civil rights protections remain timely, accessible, and enforceable? 

• Will federal oversight continue to support consistency across states? 

• Will special education remain clearly understood as both an education issue and a civil rights issue? 

At ElevateDD, through DSACO, Learning Aid Ohio, and Adult Literacy Ohio, we see the importance of IDEA across the lifespan. We see families entering early intervention for the first time. We see students working toward IEP goals. We see young people preparing for transition. We see adults continuing to build literacy, confidence, employment skills, and community connections.  

The history of special education reminds us that progress was not automatic. It was built through advocacy, law, family leadership, educator commitment, and public accountability.  

As the nation considers changes to federal education structures, ElevateDD will continue to provide clear information, listen to families, elevate community concerns, and advocate for systems that protect the rights, dignity, inclusion, and full potential of people with developmental disabilities.  

IDEA’s promise must remain clear: children with disabilities belong in our schools, their rights matter, and the systems designed to support them must remain strong, coordinated, accessible, and accountable.

ElevateDD is calling for transparency, continuity, and accountability as these federal changes are considered and implemented. Any shift in federal responsibility must strengthen, not weaken, the rights, services, and protections children with disabilities rely on.  

Families deserve clear answers. Educators deserve clear guidance. States deserve consistent support. Most importantly, children with disabilities deserve uninterrupted access to the services and protections guaranteed to them under federal law.  

ElevateDD urges federal and state leaders to ensure that any changes to agency roles or responsibilities protect continuity of services, preserve clear lines of accountability, and keep families at the center.

We encourage families, educators, providers, and advocates to stay informed, ask questions, share concerns, and continue speaking up for the rights of children with disabilities. 

Progress in special education was built by families and advocates who refused to accept exclusion. 

That progress must not be weakened.