Betsy DeVos strikes again!

In a move that looks to have largely gone under the radar, The Department of Education has rescinded 72 guidance documents (63 documents from the Office of Special Education Programs [OSEP] and 9 from the Rehabilitation Services Administration [RSA]) that clarify the rights of disabled students, Washington Post reports.

All of these guidance documents were meant to flesh out the Disabilities Education Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

The Department of Education said this move was necessary because the documents are all either "outdated, unnecessary or ineffective."

The Department was instructed via executive order earlier this year by President Trump to review all of its guidance documents in order “to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.”

Streamlining things sounds like a good thing, right?

Not according to some advocates for those with disabilities.

The chief policy and advocacy officer for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Lindsay E. Jones, fears that rolling back guidance will make things more difficult for students and parents.

“All of these [documents] are meant to be very useful … in helping schools and parents understand and fill in with concrete examples the way the law is meant to work when it’s being implemented in various situations,” Jones said.

Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA) explained that activists are worried because the guidance "focused on critical clarifications of the regulations required to meet the needs of students with disabilities and provide them a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.”

The good news, Scott said, is that “notwithstanding the actions taken by the Department today, the regulations still remained enforced." The bad news, however, is that the regulations now "lack the clarification the guidance provided.”

Some of the newly nixed guidance documents had been in use since the 1980s. The documents included clarification on how schools could spend federal funds specially set aside for special education, and translated legal jargon into layman's terms so that parents could effectively advocate for their children's rights.

“If the documents that are on this list are all covered in newer documents that were released — which sometimes does happen — that would be fine,” Jones said, noting that updates are standard, but that she had never seen so many documents removed at once. "Our goal is to make sure that parents and schools and educators understand how these laws work, and the department plays a critical role in that.”

DeVos' spokeswoman did not provide a comment.

Special Education

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