#AdvocacyMatters: Keeping Up and Moving Forward

April 11, 2025 / #AdvocacyMatters

Our vision of a truly equitable Ohio is rooted in improving opportunities and outcomes for young people with disabilities. Support around education is among the most frequent topics our team is contacted about. For parents of students with disabilities, ensuring their children receive the free and appropriate public education to which they are entitled can be a long and seemingly endless journey: Reviewing IEPs, documenting necessary accommodations, and advocating for their children's education can quickly and easily become all-encompassing.

Earlier this week we updated our Education Blog with information about a new expulsion law for schools in Ohio, which allows school districts to expel students for 180 days for behavior that poses an "imminent and severe endangerment" to the health and safety of other pupils or school employees. Remember that a student with a disability cannot be removed from school for behavior due to or related to their disability, or due to the school not performing the IEP, unless the student engages in a narrow scope of dangerous activity.

Our team has also continued to monitor changes at the US Department of Education and share information about these changes with media outlets across the state, including recently speaking with The Chronicle and Ideastream. At the root of those concerns is the gutting of the department's Office for Civil Rights, an entity that's historically helped families with investigation and resolution without requiring an attorney.

Gutting the U.S. Department of Education will weaken significantly its capacity to provide necessary oversight and procedural safeguards to families, resulting in fewer and inconsistent services to students with disabilities, and parents left without recourse to resolve their concerns," shared Kristin Hildebrant, DRO Senior Attorney and Education Team Leader. "For students with disabilities who are already achieving far below their peers without disabilities, this is a step in the wrong direction and a bad decision for Ohio's children."

Improving educational outcomes for students with disabilities is vital to realizing a truly equitable society. Our work throughout this area will continue, both in direct case work and in systemic advocacy around these harmful policy changes.

#AdvocacyMatters