Tag: Section 504

1. Hundreds of Illegal Layoffs at the Department of Education. DoED laid off over 1300 employees Tuesday night, nearly half the department. Secretary McMahon made a statement that layoffs would not affect special ed, nor any legally-mandated positions, but that was a lie.
   
   Layoffs were conducted without review via a generic, “Dear colleague” letter, including eliminating workers in mandated positions that are not allowed to be vacant by law. Many workers who were supposed to continue on until the end of the month or longer cannot consistently access their emails and computers due to DOGE control.
   
   The layoffs spanned a variety of departments, cutting large swaths of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) was also impacted.
   
   The entire office providing funding for Gallaudet, NTID, the American Printing House for the Blind, Helen Keller National Center, and other special institutions has been laid off.
   
   There is also currently no director at the head of OSEP, the office overseeing IDEA. McMahon sparked anger in an interview after the layoffs, in which she revealed she did not know what “IDEA” stands for.
   
2. Regional DoEd Offices Shuttered. In addition to the layoffs, seven regional Department of Education offices have also been closed down: Cleveland, Boston, New York, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia.
   
   Among many impacts, this will further delay already long wait times for students and families dealing with discrimination complaints.
   
3. DOGE Continues to infiltrate Social Security Administration (SSA). The DOGE team continues to grow at SSA, in what journalists believe to be the largest presence at any agency. Musk and friends have alleged “mass fraud” at the agency, but have not produced any evidence of the claim.
   
   DOGE is currently considering cancelling benefits for nearly 200,000 people who receive social security benefits without a SSN; however the majority of those are disabled children whose benefits are redirected to a “designated payee” in their parent or guardian.
   
4. DOGE takes aim at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Under Musk, DOGE targeted HUD for layoffs of around half of the department, which oversees housing vouchers, rental assistance, public housing and a variety of anti-homelessness initiatives, including rebuild grants for communities after disaster.
   
   HUD also oversees fair housing laws and fields discrimination complaints.
   
   At least 50% of the US’s unhoused population is disabled.
   
5. Senate Finance Committee holds hearing for Dr. Mehmet Oz. TV personality “Doctor Oz” was tapped to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and began his hearing Friday.
   
   He is poised to oversee Medicaid, Medicare, and administrative duties related to the Affordable Care Act as Republicans vow to make deep cuts to the former two programs. Oz sidestepped questions about whether he would protect Medicaid from cuts during Friday’s hearing.
   
6. Senate passes a Continuing Resolution for the GOP’s budget bill. Republicans, with the help of 10 Democrats, voted to pass a continuing resolution that avoids a government shutdown until September.
   
   A coalition of anti-Trump organizers, including the federal workers union, had rallied to encourage Democrats to vote NO, in an effort to bring Republicans to the negotiating table and include language to reign in DOGE’s unfettered slashing of federal programs and employment. Instead, a small group of Democrats helped push the bill through.
   
   Now that Democrats have ceded their leverage it will be difficult to stop further implementation of Project 2025 or DOGE cuts, beyond lawsuits after the fact.
   
7. Texas vs. Beccera lawsuit continues. Attorneys General continue to use transphobic rhetoric to attack Final Rule and Section 504.
   
   Participants continue to say they do not want to dismantle disabled people’s rights, but have not revoked the original filing, which explicitly asks for 504 to be declared unconstitutional (p 37-42).
   
   504 protects disabled people’s rights in all spaces that receive federal funding, but could have major implications for those needing interpreters in hospitals in light of the new English EO.
   The next update is due in April.
   
8. Good News… 21 Attorneys General have banded together to sue the administration regarding the illegal firings of Department of Education employees. This comes alongside previously established suits and union actions already in-play for other firings and freezings across the federal workforce.
   
   A judge also ordered Thursday that probationary employees across multiple agencies who were laid off should be reinstated.
   

Action Items:
Share this info. Disability is often lost in mainstream coverage.

• Call your Representative and tell them to intervene on behalf of the Dept. of Education.

• Call the Senate Finance Committee members and tell them to vote NO on Dr. Oz.

• Protest University of Texas at Austin’s hosting of the upcoming racist and eugenicist conference.

• Make sure your vaccines are up to date, especially if you may have received an inactive virus version of the MMR vaccine from 1963-67, which was ineffective

• If your state is involved, contact your Attorney General and ask them to withdraw from Texas v. Beccera. Tell them you stand in solidarity with disabled people, and trans folks.
• Consider how you can pivot to creative and local acts of resistance now that elected officials have ceded negotiating power. Here are some ideas.