US Secretary of Education Betsy Devos speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on March 27, 2020, in Washington, DC. that Congress waive narrow provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, while recommending that essential principles of the sprawling law remain intact, in a move at least one disability rights group is cheering.
IDEA is a sprawling education law that includes hundreds of mandates for schools and educators. The law scrupulously details everything from how schools should interact with parents of students with disabilities to how to pay for students’ services. However, as school districts shift to virtual learning during the coronavirus pandemic,have complained that many of these mandates are no longer tenable.
Disability rights groups and parents urged the Department of Education to keep the law fully intact, saying waivers are unnecessary and could lead to an eventual chipping away of the signature education law. Groups like the