The U.S. Department of Education has modified a web page offering information about the federal disabilities act.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The U.S. Department of Education has modified its web page offering information on the federal disabilities act, drawing concern from Senate Democrats and advocates for the disabled.
The web page for the Individuals with Disabilities Act -- designed to empower and assist students with disabilities and their families -- was modified without explanation last week, right before the tie-breaker confirmation of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education.
DeVos, a billionaire with no public school education experience, was widely criticized when she failed to answer questions about the disabilities act during her Senate confirmation hearing.Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, both from Washington State, demanded DeVos "provide an immediate and detailed explanation for why the resource website for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has disappeared."
The site used to include the full text of the act, along with Q&As and guidance documents. It now directs users to a page saying the servers are "experiencing technical issues," and directing users to outside links about the act.
The senators pointed out that the centralized resource website for the IDEA (https://www.idea.ed.gov) has been inaccessible to the public for more than a week, and now is redirecting people to a modified site for the Office of Special Education Programs ("OSEP"). "The OSEP website lacks much of the information previously available," they said.
"The Department's failure to keep this critical resource operational makes it harder for parents, educators, and administrators to find the resources they need to implement this federal law and protect the rights of children with disabilities," the senators, who both opposed DeVos' cabinet nomination, said in a joint statement.
The web page was set up under President George W. Bush's Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, so that educators, advocates and parents could get a 'one-stop' explanation and know their rights under the disability law."
The downed web page is another misstep in what's been a rocky start for DeVos and the Trump Education Department.
On Friday protesters protesters blocked DeVos from entering a Washington, D.C. public school. Over the weekend the department tweeted a Black History Month tribute to W.E.B. Du Bois that spelled the civil rights leader's name wrong. The department then apologized in a tweet with another mistake, which said, "our deepest apologizes for the earlier typo."
On Tuesday morning DeVos met with President Donald Trump at a White House "listening session" with teachers who have taught in public and private school, and parents who home-school their kids. The president told them "America's children will be the winners" with DeVos as his education secretary.