Education Department quietly scrubs webpage for disabled student protections

As corroborated by various reports, the U.S. Department of Education scrubbed a page for the Individuals with Disabilities Act from its website, just before Betsy DeVos‘s conformation for Education Secretary.

As the New York Daily News points out, the law was one of the aspects about education policy that she evaded during her confirmation hearing questioning.

Some Democratic Senators want answers as to why the page is gone.

“The Department’s failure to keep this critical resource operational makes it harder for parents, educators, and administrators to find the resources they need to implement this federal law and protect the rights of children with disabilities,” Washington State senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray said in a joint statement on Friday.

From The NY Daily News:

The page, which was introduced under President George W. Bush, served as a one-stop resource explaining the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which ensures that students with disabilities will receive public education fitting their personal needs.

The site used to include the full text of the act, along with Q&As and guidance documents. It now directs to a page saying the servers are “experiencing technical issues,” and directing users to outside links about the act.

DeVos, a billionaire charter school advocate with no public education experience, faced fierce criticism after the Senate grilled her on the act, and she appeared to flunk the test.

Pages being removed as a new administration comes in isn’t unheard of, but the fact that the page is still down without comment from the Education Department has many of DeVos’s opponents fearing the worst.

During her confirmation hearing, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) asked if she believed public schools should comply with the act, to which she responded that it was a matter “best left to the states.”

Watch that exchange in the video below:

Featured image via YouTube. To follow Sky Palma on Facebook, click here.

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *