A high-stakes lawsuit, Texas v. Becerra, is currently making its way through the courts, threatening crucial protections for people with disabilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. This federal lawsuit brought by Republican state attorneys general against the Biden Administration’s updated disability discrimination regulation, challenges two aspects of that rule-. One aspect potentially allows discrimination protections for transgender individuals while the other sets parameters for application of the statutory “integration mandate.”

In its suit, Texas and its 16 supporting states (i.e., Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Flordia, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia) claim that these two aspects of the rule violate the Administrative Procedures Act and that they, and the entirety of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act violated the Constitution’s Spending Clause. Thus, in claiming that Section 504 is unconstitutional and instead of taking aim at those specific provisions, the lawsuit seeks to dismantle Section 504 in its entirety. If successful, this case could strip away fundamental protections, making it easier for discrimination against disabled individuals to go unchallenged.

The case is currently being considered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and whatever their ruling is likely to be appealed up to the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals, before possibly going to the U.S. Supreme Court.

To view a video detailing the case by the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), click here.

For more information from The Educators Room, click here.

On February 10, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has approximately $881 million in multiyear research contracts, which are expected to affect data accuracy and the implementation of evidence-based practices. The contracts terminated by the Education Department’s Institute of Educational Sciences include 29 related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI),  totaling $101 million. 

The USDE reports that it “removed or archived” hundreds of DEI-related outward-facing documents (i.e., guidance, reports, and training materials) to comply with a presidential executive order to end federal DEI activities. The USDE has also put employees charged with leading DEI efforts on paid leave.

The announce cuts are expected to prevent the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) from reporting data on school, college and university finances and to facilitate a loss of future survey data to understand the extent of teacher shortages and chronic absenteeism in schools.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.

The date has been set for U.S. Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon’s hearing for her to serve as It will be held on Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 10 AM ET at 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Click here for live video of the hearing.

At a February 5, 2025 hearing, Republican and Democratic members of a U.S. House education panel agreed that K-12 schools need a stronger focus on improving academic outcomes for students — but they had vastly different views on the direction the nation’s schools should take.

For more information on the three-hour hearing, click here.

On February 6, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened Title IX investigations into a middle and high school athletics association and two universities that it says have allowed transgender women and girls to participate on teams corresponding with their gender identity. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, San José State University, and the University of Pennsylvania, are being investigated. In addition, it is reported that OCR is reviewing athletics participation policies at “a number of schools.”

The investigations are in response to an executive order barring transgender women from playing on women’s sports teams and threatening to pull federal funding from educational institutions that don’t comply.

OCR is also taking aim at the term “transgender ideology,” which according to the Southern Poverty Law Center is often used by anti-LGBTQ+ groups to imply that someone’s transgender identity “is not real but is instead a belief system that is imposed on others.”

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.