Last Friday, parents heard about the mass layoffs of OSEP, the Office of Special Education Programs. “To completely obliterate this program and provide no guidance or resources to the states who teach these vulnerable children is sickening,” said Melissa Custer, Learn in My Shoes Co-Founder from Grafton.
Families who have children with disabilities in Wisconsin are concerned about the future of special education and the safety of their children with the latest mass layoffs.
“As the parent of a child with cerebral palsy, I’m extremely worried. My daughter needs a lot of support to safely attend school. I can’t understand why this administration is attacking programs that help vulnerable children. This isn’t a partisan issue. People on both sides of the aisle and in red and blue states have disabled kids. How does this help Americans? It doesn’t,” said Annette Fournier, veteran and mother of a daughter with high support needs in public school from Kenosha.
While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) still stands, we don’t yet know what will happen when there will be no one on the federal level for states, districts, educators, and families to go to receive guidance, get technical assistance, uphold the civil rights for students with disabilities, and distribute federal funding for special education programs.
“When my daughter attended public school, I went to IEP meetings confident that, should the school fail to properly educate and accommodate her, I had recourse. I had the very programs currently being stripped of personnel and resources as backup. I am both heartbroken and furious for the families, students and educators who will undoubtedly be left in the lurch due to this unconscionable dismantling of the Department of Education,” said Erica Kochanski, mother of an autistic daughter from Waukesha.
“The OSEP cuts are a devastating blow to students with disabilities and their families. If my son were to receive any less services from the district than he does currently, I fear that the public school system could no longer meet his needs. There’s no guidebook for parents telling us what to do next,” said Megan Cobb-Sheehan, mother to an autistic son in public school in Madison.
Since March, the Learn in My Shoes campaign has collected stories across the state from students with disabilities, their teachers, and their schools and delivered them to state legislators, advocating for increasing the special education reimbursement rate for the 2025-2027 state budget. Each story was attached to a pair of children’s shoes.
Learn more about Learn in My Shoes: learninmyshoeswi.org
WATCH: PBS Wisconsin: Why special education is a focus of Wisconsin’s 2025 budget
