Project 2025 could be a wrecking ball for disabled kids: report

The blueprint for Donald Trump's second presidency calls for the elimination of the Department of Education, which could disrupt the ability of many children to access schooling.

Project 2025 takes aim at federal education policy, which ensures that states provide equitable education for all children, and advocates for the disabled are concerned that a second Trump administration will eliminate funding and opportunities for disabled kids, reported Mother Jones.

“There is a growing concern within the education field,” said Fred Buglione of All In for Inclusive Education, “how deep the cuts might be, what that means for the field, and at the end of the day, what that means for children."

It's not clear how the Department of Education would dismantle itself or how many Republican lawmakers would go along with such a plan, but any budget cuts could reduce funding for programs that protect students' disability accommodations and Individualized Education Plans, which could impact up to 8.4 million students.

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“If you take away those federal funds, you’re taking away qualified teachers,” said Kyla Bishop, an attorney with Disability Rights Arkansas. “It would be a domino effect.”

An individualized education plan is the only way that 10-year-old Xiomara Hung, who has had a tracheostomy and requires a feeding tube, can attend school, and her mother worries that Project 2025 cut eliminate those protections for children like hers who have complex medical needs.

"If they don’t have a dedicated nurse who’s trained in their care, then they can’t go to school, because it’s just not safe,” said Elena Hung, who is the executive director of Little Lobbyists.

Project 2025 doesn't directly target funding for students with disabilities, as the right-wing blueprint does with abortion rights, but it calls for funding to aid children with disabilities to be converted to a no-strings formula block grant that would be distributed to local education agencies – which is worryingly vague to advocates.

“It remains uncertain what they might do with respect to both the level of appropriations for [the IDEA Act] and the formula that they might use to distribute those funds to states and districts,” said Tammy Kolbe, a principal investigator at the American Institutes for Research.