Advocates Warn Trump Administration Not To Change IDEA Policy

Disability advocates and former education officials met with Trump administration representatives from the Department of Education last month to warn against changing or reinterpreting the policy regarding the requirement that children with disabilities be placed in the least restrictive environment, "LRE."

They were worried that the Trump administration might change the law's presumption that all children with disabilities be educated in a general education classroom; except when the student cannot receive an appropriate education in that environment even with supplementary aids and services.

Although the advocates were told that the Trump administration does not plan to reinterpret LRE in the near future, they were also told that nothing is off the table as part of the department's efforts to reconsider everything about how the agency administers special education.