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Federal Court Tells Betsy DeVos That Obama Rule to Protect Children of Color Must Take Effect Immediately
As we've stated dozens of times, Republicans within the Trump cabinet are HARD AT WORK EVERY DAY to destroy the funding and laws that seek to improve our country and our future. Case in point right here as Betsy Devos has tried to eliminate a law that protects minority children from discrimination in schools. Seriously.
A federal court ruled this week that an Obama-era regulation designed to ensure children of color are not disproportionately punished or sent to special-education classrooms must take effect immediately.... the rules were supposed to have taken effect in 2018. But Education Secretary Betsy DeVos moved to delay them for two years.
The decision, issued Thursday [3/7/19], is a rebuke of her action.
The ruling found that the department violated the Administrative Procedures Act by failing to provide a “reasoned explanation” for its delay and failure to consider the costs of the postponement. It lifts the two-year delay.
“By forcing the Trump administration to implement the rule, the court’s ruling will put us back on a track toward reversing systemic racial discrimination in education,” Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-Va.), chairman of the House Education Committee said. “The court’s ruling confirms our suspicion that the Education Department’s delay of the . . . rule had no basis in evidence or facts.”
The Obama-era rule changed how states must implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which governs special education in schools throughout the nation.
....responding to concerns that students of color were overrepresented in special education, requires that school systems collect data on the demographics and treatment of special-education students.
This data can help determine whether African American special-education students are more likely to be removed from mainstream classrooms, for instance, or whether Hispanic special-education students face harsher discipline.