06/20/2026
Failing to see the humanity in all people puts us all on a slippery slope. And once that slide starts, there's no telling where it stops. – Michelle Obama, June 18, 2026
Listening to Michelle Obama’s speech at the Obama Presidential Center (and quite honestly tearing up through the whole thing), I was struck by this sentence that so encapsulates what we have lost with the current administration, i.e.., a respect for the light and the dignity in every single person, regardless of their citizenship status, their skin color, their wealth, their abilities, their gender, who they love, where they live, who they vote for, and all the rest. And Michelle’s statement seems especially raw on the day after the Trump Administration announced that it is moving oversight of special education from the Department of Education, whose professed mission is “to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access” to the Department of Health and Human Services, whose mission is “to improve the health, safety, and productivity of federal employees.”
Sit with that for a minute. There are so many things wrong with this idea, from the loss of institutional expertise, the bureaucratic nightmare of transferring the work of a functioning agency to another department of the government, to the fact that it will be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. with all his unscientific and eugenic views, who will be charged with safeguarding implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (I.D.E.A.), the centerpiece federal legislation governing the education of students with disabilities. Setting aside the egregious administrative and leadership issues here, there is also the segregation aspect to it. The education of students with disabilities is being removed from the department that oversees all other students’ education. What does that say?
We are all familiar with the I.D.E.A.’s “least restrictive environment” requirement which provides that to the maximum extent possible, students with disabilities are to be educated with their non-disabled peers. This mandate exists because, as the I.D.E.A. itself states, “Research and experience has demonstrated that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by having high expectations for such children and ensuring their access to the general education curriculum in the regular classroom to the maximum extent possible.” 20 U.S.C. §1400(c)(5).
By relocating special education away from the Department of Education, the Trump administration violates this foundational principle on a grand scheme. To answer my own earlier question, this shift communicates that the department that educates disabled students cannot be housed with the department that educates everyone else. In the world of special education law, we call this a “placement change.” In short, the I.D.E.A. just got reassigned to the Resource Classroom.
I do not mean to criticize resource classrooms, or self-contained classrooms or schools in general. In our practice, we often support parents who are seeking to move their children to specialized settings because they correctly believe that their children are not getting the intensity of services that they need to thrive in their public schools. Likewise, I support the right of persons with disabilities to create intentional, separate communities that address their unique needs. However, I do not agree with the forced separation of a governmental agency that focuses on disabled students from the rest of the governmental educational apparatus. This is a structural siloing and it will precipitate all the negative consequences of stigma and inequality that always flow from segregation. One would think that our country learned this 50 years ago, but apparently not.
Worse yet, the oversight of special education is relocating to a department that centers on health, safety, and worker productivity, a move that pathologizes disability. Our country has a long and tragic history with this, too. For more than 100 years, we confined people with disabilities and mental illness in sanitariums and institutions where often poorly treated and worse. This cruel practice did nothing to advance the independence and productive lives of the residents. It also deprived everyone else of the company, talents, and gifts of those who were locked inside.
Education is founded on optimism – a belief that every child can learn, grow, and develop new skills – whether the child is mastering a foreign language or learning to communicate a basic demand with a speech generating device. It sees the potential in the learner and honors them as an active participant in the process. All this goes by the wayside when we view students with disabilities as patients who are passive recipients of treatments, cures, and protection.
Returning to Michelle’s speech, she also remarked about people from all walks of life, including immigrants: “these folks aren’t ‘Americans, too,’ they are America.” Similarly, people with disabilities aren’t “humans, too” they are humanity. This is because the core concept of humankind rests on diversity and inclusivity. Whether we are talking about America or humanity, it is the beautiful breadth of the thing that is its essence. When the government excises special education from education it is showing us all that it has failed to learn the most important lesson of all. The former First Lady is right; we are on the slippery slope.
The U.S. Department of Education has begun outsourcing responsibility for overseeing the nation’s sprawling special education system and enforcing civil rights law in schools to other federal agencies, after months of previewing efforts to restructure both core functions.
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