The U.S. Department of Education is planning to make changes to a federal rule that requires states and districts to measure racial disparities in special education, according to an announcement made over the Fourth of July weekend.
Known as the Equity in IDEA regulation, the rule requires that districts be measured for racial disparities in special education annually in 14 categories — including a student’s disability identification, where a student’s learning takes place, and discipline. These calculations determine if a district is significantly disproportionate.
Districts deemed significantly disproportionate must reserve 15% of their federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B funds for programs that remedy racial disparities and biases, including for initiatives that support all students and students at risk of needing special education services.
The Education Department's announcement in the 2026 unified agenda said the agency plans to issue a proposed rules amending Equity in IDEA in August. It is unknown at this point what changes the agency will propose.
During the first Trump administration, the Education Department sought to delay a July 2018 deadline for compliance to the 2016 Equity in IDEA regulation. That rule attempted to standardize calculations for significant disproportionality nationally while still giving states flexibility in how they measure disproportionality. A 2013 U.S. Government Accountability Office report found wide variation in how states calculated racial overrepresentation in special education.
The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates sued the Education Department in 2018 to prevent the delay of the Equity in IDEA rule and won. The rule was back in full effect by April 2019. According to Education Department data, between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 school years there was a 100% increase in the number of districts identified with significant disproportionality, although those districts only represented about 5% of districts nationwide.
According to an introduction to the government-wide 2026 unified agenda, the Trump administration plans sweeping deregulation initiatives, as well as other priorities.
"Equally important, the Trump Administration’s Regulatory Plan will promote liberty, unleash American energy dominance, preserve products consumers love, and eradicate the ideology of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)," according to the message from Mark Paoletta, general counsel performing the delegated duties of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs administrator.
Even without the Equity in IDEA regulation, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires states and districts to measure for racial disparities in special education.
What advocates and researchers are saying
Selene Almazan, COPAA's legal director, called the Trump administration's intention to amend the Equity in IDEA rule "deeply troubling."
"Once again, this administration is attempting to undermine the rights of students with disabilities," said Almazan, in an email. "The IDEA requirement to address significant disproportionality has been in place for more than 20 years to combat racial disparities in identification, discipline, and segregation."
Almazan said the administration's announcement "disregards decades of research, data, and efforts to advance equity and improve outcomes for all students with disabilities, especially those from marginalized communities."
Daniel Losen, senior director of education for the National Center for Youth Law, has studied racial disproportionality for several decades. Research by Losen and colleagues has found "large and persistent" racial disparities in special education, particularly in discipline, he said.
Losen said the move by the Trump administration to amend the Equity in IDEA rule is an attempt to eliminate equity and fairness in education, despite incidents of districts finding racial disproportionality in special education services of White students.
"Whatever actions they do take will almost certainly be detrimental to our children in our public schools," Losen said. "There are protections that are in the law that are there for a reason, and there's a long history of students not being adequately served by public schools, despite their having the right to an education."
But some have cast doubt that the Equity in IDEA rule is the best method for uncovering racial disparities and biases in special education.
Paul Morgan, director of the Institute for Social and Health Equity at the University at Albany in New York, has researched racial disparities in special education. Morgan and his colleagues find that, among similarly situated students, those who are White and from English-speaking families are more likely to be identified as having disabilities.
"We repeatedly fail to observe evidence of over-identification of students of color in support of the Equity in IDEA regulations, and instead find that students who are racial, ethnic, or language minorities are less likely to be identified than similarly situated White, English-speaking students while attending U.S. schools," Morgan said in an email.
