Category: News in the Field

Waiting List Reduced for ID and Autism Services by Nearly 20% (March 29, 2025)

Department of Human Services (DHS) Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh joined advocates from The Arc of Indiana County for a roundtable discussion on the successes to-date of the Shapiro Administration’s multi-year growth strategy for intellectual disability and autism (ID/A) services and the importance of continued funding in Governor Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget proposal for this community and the workforce that supports them.

The 2024-25 bipartisan budget made historic new investments in Pennsylvanians with ID/A and the direct support professionals (DSPs) who care for them by securing $354.8 million in federal and state funding to provide more resources for home and community-based service providers. The funding included:

-$280 million to help raise wages for DSPs, ensuring better retention and quality of care
-This investment in provider rates supported recruitment, retention, and wages for DSPs who make inclusive, enriching lives possible for people with intellectual disabilities and autism.
-$74.8 million to begin the process of eliminating the years-long emergency waiting list for services.

In less than one year, DHS has reduced the adult emergency waiting list for services by just under 20 percent. This is a remarkable shift given that the emergency waiting list had been growing for years. During the Shapiro Administration, more than 3,000 additional individuals have been enrolled in services, and that number will continue to rise. For the first time ever, more than 40,000 individuals are receiving ID/A services through the Department of Human Services. Funding in Governor Shapiro’s 2025-26 proposed budget will continue this rate of progress, which includes 1,300 people newly receiving services since July 2024.

The Shapiro Administration believes every Pennsylvanian with intellectual disabilities and autism deserves the supports they need to achieve an everyday life with dignity and the opportunity to live and work among their families and peers. While home- and community-based services have been offered in Pennsylvania for decades, the way the program was structured limited capacity and did not allow flexibility that could help individuals access the services they needed when they needed them. Historically, individuals may have waited for years to be enrolled in services even if they have immediate needs. 

Through the multi-year growth strategy, DHS has shifted away from setting capacity in programs by numbers or “slots” and instead sets capacity by an overall budget-based system. This will allow counties flexibility to make decisions based on local needs and will help establish Pennsylvania as a national leader in eliminating its emergency waiting list for home- and community-based services.

Trump Plans to Move Special Ed. to HHS (March 24, 2025)

On March 21, 2025, President Trump announced that federal special education operations, currently spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE), will move to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He also said he would move federal student loan and school nutrition program oversight from the USDE to the Small Business Administration.

The USDE oversees the distribution of about $15.4 billion for supports to about 8.4 million infants, toddlers, school children, and young adults with disabilities. The USDE’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilatives Services (OSERS) and Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) also conducts monitoring, provides technical assistance to states and school districts, and holds states and school districts accountable for compliance to IDEA.

Despite saying that tremendous results from the move will be experienced, what is unclear is how HHS will handle the increased workload and whether staff will require training — or whether remaining staff that handled those areas will be transferred if still employed at USDE.
Chad Rummel, executive director of the Council for Exceptional Children, said in a statement that, “IDEA is an education law, not a healthcare law, and belongs at the Department of Education.”

National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues released a statement that said, “This is not a minor bureaucratic reorganization — it is a fundamental redefinition of how our country treats children with disabilities.” The National Parents Union is a 1.7 million membership organization with more than 1,800 affiliated parent organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. “We must call this what it is: an effort to dismantle protections, disempower families, and turn education into a battleground for profit-driven insurance corporations,” Rodrigues said.

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How Medicaid Cuts will Harm Students (March 23, 2025)

A new report, How Medicaid Cuts Will Harm Students & Schools, presents the findings of a nationwide survey of over 1,400 school district leaders, including superintendents, school business officials and school health coordinators, on the impact Medicaid cuts would have on school health services, student resources and district funding. The executive summary and related graphics highlight key data points and respondents’ quotes.

The report was published by Healthy Schools Campaign (HSC) in partnership with The School Superintendents Association (AASA), Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO), National Alliance for Medicaid in Education (NAME) and Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE). 

A public dissemination toolkit is available to help share the report with your networks.

Cuts Essentially Eliminate Ed. Research at USDE (March 22, 2025)

Cuts by the Trump administration has all but eliminated the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDE)  statistical research arm, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which has conducted statistical research by collecting, analyzing, and reporting U.S. education data for over 150 years. The loss of almost all of the staff in the NCES, which traces its existence to an 1867 law establishing a federal statistical agency to conduct research, analyze everything from graduation rates and student outcomes to teacher and principal development, and provide the Nation’s Report Card.

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Leading Democrats Submit Written Request for USDE Layoff Details (March 22, 2025)

Leading Democrats on the congressional appropriations committees sent a 10-page letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon demanding information about the mass layoffs in the Department of Education (USDE). The March 11 layoffs cut the USDE’s workforce nearly in half and many want to know what the impact will be on the agency’s ability to perform a variety of required oversight functions.

Among major areas of concern identified in the letter are accountability under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, services for students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, federal student aid programs at colleges and universities, and students’ civil rights.

The letter requests details regarding the following:
-The number of staff terminated in each program office;
-Expected savings in salaries and benefits for fiscal 2025;
-How many remaining staff were assigned additional duties due to staff reductions since January 20, 2025;
-The average per-staff number of new duties assigned; and
-A complete list of office teams that were cut and the specific responsibilities transferred from those teams to other offices.

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