Category: Government Actions

Preparing for Cyclical Monitoring: A Focus on Secondary Transition (Indicator 13) (July 19, 2026)

In response to the accountability requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2004 (IDEA) Part B State Performance Plans, the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) and intermediate unit transition consultants will provide sustained professional development for targeted local educational agencies (LEAs). This targeted professional development will assist with creating compliant and effective individualized secondary transition programming for students with disabilities.

The requirements for each LEA assigned to the 2026-2027 Preparing for Cyclical Monitoring: A Focus on Secondary Transition training are as follows:
-Develop an administrative team to support the targeted training and technical assistance process. The administrative team is required to attend the webinar, What LEAs Need to Know About The Secondary Transition Cyclical Monitoring Schoology Course, on September 10, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Administrative team members need to register in advance for this training on the PaTTAN Training Calendar, using the link: PaTTAN – Session-42664.
-Assign a lead contact person to complete an interview/survey regarding effective practices for secondary transition as facilitated by an intermediate unit and/or PaTTAN consultant. The lead contact will work with IU Transition TaC/PaTTAN consultants to develop and implement a local training plan for the 2026-2027 school year.
•Identify targeted staff (i.e., special education directors, building principals, transition coordinators, special education teachers, speech/language therapists, school counselors, school psychologists, career tech ed staff, and other LEA staff involved in secondary programming) who will be required to complete an online Schoology course and targeted staff to participate in IEP pre-reviews using the PA Indicator 13 checklist, complete IEP post-reviews, participate in coaching activities as warranted with IU Transition TaC.
•Identify and ensure all targeted staff complete the required online Schoology course, Preparing for Cyclical Monitoring: A Focus on Secondary Transition Planning and IEP Development, between September 11, 2026, and February 26, 2027.
‣Step 1- Registration for Act 48 and the Schoology course directions can be found on the PaTTAN Training Calendar, using this link: PaTTAN – Session-42668.
*All assigned staff must individually register on the PaTTAN Training Calendar using the registration key: IND13-2026 in order to receive 6 Act 48 credit hours and directions to register for the Schoology course, Preparing for Cyclical Monitoring: A Focus on Secondary Transition Planning and IEP Development.
‣Step 2- On September 11, once assigned staff have completed Step 1, an email will be sent with directions on how to access the Schoology course, Preparing for Cyclical Monitoring: A Focus on Secondary Transition Planning and IEP Development and the access code for each LEA’s region. If directions are not received via email after registering on the PaTTAN Training Calendar, please contact Administrative Assistant, Kristen Olszyk at kolszyk@pattanpgh.net.
‣Step 3- Upon receiving the directions for the Schoology course and the access code for your LEA’s region, assigned staff must join their region’s Schoology section and complete the required course.

For questions concerning the Preparing for Cyclical Monitoring: A Focus on Secondary Transition training for 2026-2027, contact PaTTAN Educational Consultants, Darla Bryant at dbryant@pattan.net or Stephanie Ruby at sruby@pattan.net.

USDE DCL Addresses Schools “Passing the Trash” (July 18, 2026)

On July 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) issued a Dear Colleague letter to states and school districts reminding them of their responsibilities to protect students rather than engage in the practice, which it called “a troubling and recurring pattern in schools” nationwide. In addition, on the same day the USDE announced it was opening 20 targeted investigations into schools that the it suspects of “passing the trash” based on their responses to the 2023-24 Civil Rights Data Collection.

According to the Dear Colleague letter, 35 states lacked laws banning the suppression of information regarding employee sexual misconduct in termination, resignation, and severance agreements as of 2022. And 40 states didn’t prohibit expunging such information from personnel files.

For more information from K-12 Dive, click here.

10 Republican-led Bills Are First Steps in Closing the USDE (July 17, 2026)

On July 15, 2026, the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee approved 10 Republican-led bills that are the first steps in eventually closing the U.S. Department of Education (USDE). The bills would codify several interagency agreements the USDE already has in place that move core education-related functions, but not the statutory responsibilities for them, out of the USDE and into other federal agencies. Select legal responsibilities would be permanently moved out of the USDE, including programs involving K-12 student academic supports, career and technical education, and federal student loan activities.

Committee Chair Tim Walberg, R-Mich., sponsor of two bills in the 10-bill package, said the USDE has “failed.” Conversely, ranking committee member Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., opposed the bills, saying the transfers were “impractical” and “represent the abdication of the federal government’s responsibility to ensure that all students, regardless of race, religion, disability, income, or zip code, have access to a quality public education. Whatever you say about the ‘problems’ at the Department of Education, these bills will only make things worse.”

The panel’s Republican majority rejected Democrat-led amendments to the bills, including those to require progress reports, funding guardrails, and increased staffing to support the outsourced activities.

The bills still need full House and then Senate approval.

For more details from K-12 Dive, click here.

Former Federal Officials Send Letter to Congress Opposing USDE’s Special Ed. Interagency Agreement (July 15, 2026)

In a July 13, 2026 letter to federal legislators, 13 former federal officials who were responsible for overseeing special education implementation in states and districts urged Congress to reject the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDE) plans to move programs serving students with disabilities to another federal agency.

The letter’s authors are former officials who served under every presidential administration since President Richard Nixon, including during the first President Donald Trump administration, but not for the second Trump administration. According to the letter, efforts to shift special education responsibilities to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “dismantles, rather than relocates, the federal infrastructure built over five decades” of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

It also expressed concern that moving special education programs from the USDE’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to HHS would deprioritize students’ educational needs. In fact, according to the letter, “Moving IDEA’s implementation into a health agency risks substituting medical management for educational access.”

In June, the USDE announced four interagency agreements, including one to move certain special education activities to HHS. USDE also stated it was transferring some civil rights activities from its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

In total, the USDE has publicly announced 14 interagency agreements with six other federal agencies. The agreements come as the Trump administration works to eliminate the USDE.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.

15 States File a Lawsuit Challenging USDE MH Grant Cancellations (July 13, 2026)

On July 10, 2026, the attorneys general of 15 states filed a lawsuit alleging the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) is seeking to terminate “some or all” of $1 billion in mental health grants despite a permanent block preventing the USDE from doing so in a case brought last year by many of the same states. The original lawsuit filed last year by 16 states challenged the USDE’s decision to discontinue the mental health grants due to conflicts with the administration’s priorities over their support for diversity, equity and inclusion. In December 2025, a U.S. district court ruled those cancellations unlawful.

According to the latest lawsuit, because the original court blocked “discontinuances,” the USDE now plans to “terminate” the grants. Further, as stated in the suit, “though the precise mechanism by which the Department plans to end the protected grants may have changed, its illegality has not.”

In February 2025, the USDE moved to abruptly terminate funding for the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program. Those programs were established after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, and then expanded after the 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Pennsylvania is not a part of the suit.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.