Category: Government Actions

How IDEA Led to Innovations for All Students (November 25, 2025)

On Nov. 29, the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) turns 50. President Gerald Ford signed the legislation, originally known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), guaranteeing students with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate public education.

Before then, no federal requirement existed that schools must educate students with disabilities. In addition to opening public schools to a whole population of children, the law became the catalyst for legions of innovative practices and tools cultivated from both public and private sources. The transformations, special education experts say, were spurred by an ongoing need to individualize student supports while helping children with disabilities progress in general education classrooms.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.

CDC Posts Debunked ‘Link’ Between Childhood Vaccines and Autism on its Website (November 21, 2025)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made a dramatic change in its position on the relationship between vaccines and autism. The CDC’s website now says a link between vaccines and autism cannot be ruled out, which is contrary to the CDC’s longstanding stance that there is no link. The change comes even though a connection between vaccines and autism has long been debunked by a large body of high-quality research. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long promoted the discredited claim, and that appears to be the impetus for the revised CDC statement.

The CDC’s change has rung alarm bells among public health experts who are already worried about a drop in childhood vaccination, which has led to a resurgence of dangerous childhood diseases such as  measles and whooping cough.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website has been changed to promote false information suggesting vaccines cause autism,” said Dr. Susan J. Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a statement. “Since 1998, independent researchers across seven countries have conducted more than 40 high-quality studies involving over 5.6 million people. The conclusion is clear and unambiguous: There’s no link between vaccines and autism. Anyone repeating this harmful myth is misinformed or intentionally trying to mislead parents. We call on the CDC to stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims that sow doubt in one of the best tools we have to keep children healthy and thriving: routine immunizations.”

In a statement to NPR, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson Andrew Nixon repeated one of the changes to the website: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” Nixon also said HHS “has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.”

“The new statement shows a lack of understanding of the term ‘evidence,'” the Autism Science Foundation said in a statement the organization provided to NPR, adding, “No environmental factor has been better studied as a potential cause of autism than vaccines.”

It’s a statement that’s confusing by design, said Dr. Paul Offitt, a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). “These are the usual anti-vaccine tropes, misrepresentation of studies, false equivalence,” he says. “They might as well say chicken nuggets might cause autism because you can’t prove that either.”

The changes on the website “blindsided” career scientists at CDC, says Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a former top CDC official who resigned from the agency in August. “The scientists did not participate in its creation,” he says. “And the data are unvetted.”

Two current CDC staffers, who contacted NPR on November 20th, say the updates are a glaring red flag that indicate the vaccine information on the agency website is no longer credible, and is instead “anti-science.” They requested anonymity out of concern they could lose their jobs for speaking to the press.

Vaccine proponents say the moves are recklessly undermining public confidence in vaccines and fueling vaccine hesitancy, putting the nation’s children at risk. The U.S. appears to be poised to lose its status as having eliminated measles.

The CDC acknowledges in a footnote on its main webpage on autism and vaccines that it still carries a header reading “Vaccines do not cause autism*” and says it hasn’t “been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.”

In a November 20, 2025 statement, the Chair of the Senate HELP Committee Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said, “I’m a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine-preventable diseases. What parents need to hear right now is vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism. Any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.”

For more from NPR, click here.

PDE Implementing New Policies from Budget-Related Legislation (November 21, 2025)

As a result of the passage of the 2025-26 state budget the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) is moving to implement new policies included in budget-related legislation.

Act 47 of 2025 updated the Public School Code to streamline the certification process for new and existing teachers, giving them more flexibility to teach multiple grades with the same certification. The legislation also reduces educator certification fees, provides new pathways for CTE educators to demonstrate their qualifications, and expands early literacy initiatives. It also reforms Pennsylvania’s cyber charter school law to save public schools an estimated $178 million this school year and improve student safety by holding cyber charter schools accountable when they fail to comply with the requirement to visibly see and communicate with all students at least once per week.

 Updates to the Public School Code in Act 47 of 2025 include:

  • STREAMLINING TEACHER CERTIFICATIONS: Offering certifications that allow educators to teach grades PreK-6 and 7-12 rather than only grades PreK-4, 4-8, or 7-12. This change will enable administrators to more easily place educators in crucial educator workforce shortage areas, and expands the grade levels that educators are able to teach.
  • REDUCING CERTIFICATION FEES: Reducing educator certification fees, making it more cost effective for individuals to obtain certification.
  • EXPANDING THE EDUCATOR WORKFORCE: Creating pathways for individuals with inactive teaching certificates to return to the classroom and for superintendents to become certified CTE directors.
  • CREATING NEW PATHWAYS TO CERTIFICATION: Allowing prospective CTE teachers to demonstrate their occupational skills and knowledge based on a review of their credentials and work experience rather than by taking an expensive test.
  • EXPANDING EARLY LITERACY INITIATIVES: Expanding early literacy in schools across the Commonwealth by requiring all public schools to adopt evidence-based reading curriculum and identify and provide targeted assistance to students with reading deficiencies.
  • REFORMING CYBER CHARTER LAW: Saving $175 million for school districts across Pennsylvania by redefining the cyber charter school funding formula, thereby reducing the tuition payments school districts pay to cyber charter schools.
  • IMPROVING STUDENT SAFETY: Improving the health and safety of cyber charter school students by holding cyber charter schools accountable when they fail to comply with the requirement to visibly see and communicate with all students at least once per week.    

The 2025–26 budget delivers more than $900 million in additional funding for pre-K–12 public education. The investments in this year’s budget include:

  • $565 million in new adequacy funding to expand support to all school districts across the Commonwealth and a $105 million increase for Basic Education Funding. The adequacy funding formula was expanded to drive out more money to schools.
  • $40 million increase for Special Education Funding.
  • $125 million for school infrastructure improvements to create safe, healthy learning environments — including $25 million for the Solar for Schools program to lower energy costs and promote sustainability.
  • $100 million in annual mental health and school safety funding for K–12 schools, ensuring every student has access to the resources and support they need to thrive.
  • Expanded access to school meals, providing universal free breakfast for more than 1.7 million students and free lunch for 22,000 eligible students, with nearly 93 million breakfasts served during the 2024–25 school year — a 13.8 percent increase over two years — including over 70 million meals for students at risk of hunger or from low-income families.

To view the press release, click here.

PaTTAN Identifies the Top 3 Mistakes Schools Make When Using Interpreters in IEP Meetings (November 19, 2025)

Effective communication is the foundation of equity in education, especially for multilingual families navigating the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. Yet, schools often make critical mistakes when working with spoken-language interpreters. Here are three common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1: Treating the IEP as a single meeting.
An IEP is a process, not an event. Interpreters need to be involved before, during, and after the meeting. Pre-meeting preparation ensures they understand terminology and cultural context. Post-meeting support helps clarify next steps for families. Solution: Build interpreter protocols into your MTSS framework, not just the meeting itself.

Mistake #2: Ignoring the link between language and culture.
Interpreting isn’t word-for-word translation, it’s cultural navigation. Families may have different views on disability or authority, and interpreters bridge those gaps. Solution: Treat interpreters as members of the professional team and partners who convey meaning, not just words.

Mistake #3: Failing to train staff.
Even skilled interpreters struggle when meetings move too fast or include jargon. Educators need training on pacing, eye contact, and collaboration. Solution: Offer specialized special education training and quality PD for  interpreters and staff around spoken language interpreting standards and ethics for IEPs.

Resources:

  • Download the Interpreter IEP Checklist and Cultural Liaison vs. Interpreter Venn Diagram at PaTTAN.
  • Explore our PaTTAN Training Calendar https://www.pattan.net/events/ for upcoming sessions on IEP interpretation for Interpreters and Educators.

For more information, contact: Maria Ronneburger, Educational Consultant & State Lead, English Learner Initiative
Email: mronneburger@PaTTAN.net

USDE Announces Six New Partnerships to Break Up the Federal Agency (November 18, 2025)

On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) announced six new interagency agreements (IAAs) with four agencies to break up the USDE saying that doing so will “ensure efficient delivery of funded programs, activities, and move closer to fulfilling the President’s promise to return education to the states. By partnering with agencies that are best positioned to deliver results for students and taxpayers, these IAAs will streamline federal education activities on the legally required programs, reduce administrative burdens, and refocus programs and activities to better serve students and grantees.”

The partnerships with the Departments of Labor (DOL), Interior (DOI), Health and Human Services (HHS), and State follow a workforce development partnership signed with DOL earlier this year.

“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission. As we partner with these agencies to improve federal programs, we will continue to gather best practices in each state through our 50-state tour, empower local leaders in K-12 education, restore excellence to higher education, and work with Congress to codify these reforms. Together, we will refocus education on students, families, and schools – ensuring federal taxpayer spending is supporting a world-class education system.” 

According to a USDE press release, the USDE and DOL “are establishing the Elementary and Secondary Education Partnership to empower parents and states, promote innovation, and deliver program improvements in pursuit of better outcomes for students in elementary and secondary education. DOL will take on a greater role in administering federal K-12 programs, ensuring these programs are better aligned with workforce and college programs to set students up for success at every part of their education journey. With proper oversight by USDE, DOL will manage competitions, provide technical assistance, and integrate USDE’s programs with the suite of employment and training programs DOL already administers.”

In addition, the press release states that the USDE and DOI are establishing the Indian Education Partnership “to improve Native American education in the United States. DOI will take on a greater role in administering Indian Education programs relating to elementary and secondary education, higher education, career and technical education, and vocational rehabilitation, solidifying the agency as the key point of contact for Tribes and Native students. With proper oversight by USDE, DOI will manage competitions, provide technical assistance, and integrate USDE’s Indian Education programs with the suite of programs DOI already administers.”

According to K-12 Dive, the shifting of responsibilities is a historic change for the 46-year-old agency that has been the central hub of federal grant-making, technical assistance and civil rights enforcement for schools and colleges. The changes do not include movement for the management of special education, civil rights enforcement or student financial aid. However, a senior USDE official who spoke during a press call said the agency was continuing to explore options for those programs.

In a statement announcing American Education Week, President Donald Trump said, “By dismantling the Department of Education, my Administration has returned control of education to where it belongs — with States, local communities, and parents who are best equipped to meet the needs of their students.”

And in an opinion piece published in USA Today on Sunday, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the recently ended 43-day shutdown of the federal government showed that the USDE isn’t needed.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.

View the partnership fact sheet for Elementary and Secondary Education here.

View the partnership fact sheet for Indian Education here.

View the press release in its entirety by clicking here.