Portrait of Angeth Mayen
May 24, 2024, is a date I will never forget. Before last year, I didn’t fully understand the struggles faced by people with disabilities. I knew disability existed, but it felt distant from my everyday life. That changed overnight when I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Suddenly, I had to confront inequities in the healthcare system, the lack of public understanding of disabilities, and how having an invisible disability can change the way you navigate the world.
I had some resources when I was diagnosed that others do not have. I have an older brother who also lives with Type 1 Diabetes, so I had someone to guide me through the toughest early months. However, when I transitioned from high school to college, I found myself navigating a system that I barely understood. For the first time, I was a disabled student, and I didn’t even know what accommodations were. I still saw myself as the same person I always was, but my body and my needs had changed significantly. I could no longer sit through a two-hour exam without monitoring my blood sugar. I needed snacks readily available. I needed breaks. I needed professors and administrators who understood.
It took me almost two months to understand what my university’s Student Disability Services office actually did. Once I connected with them, I was supported, respected, and given every accommodation I needed. That experience was validating, but some students with disabilities across the country do not have such a positive experience. It reminded me that the right to learn, participate, and succeed should not depend on luck or whether you happen to know the right resources.
Disabled students’ rights to education exist because of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA is a law that guarantees students with disabilities a free, appropriate public education tailored to their specific needs. It was enacted in 1975 as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Before that, disabled students were often institutionalized, excluded, or denied access to education altogether. I grew up in a world where IDEA already existed, so I took it for granted. Many of us do. However, as IDEA turns 50 years old, it’s clear that merely having this law is insufficient. States are expected to follow IDEA, but their actions tell a different story.
On June 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education issued the annual determination letters regarding state implementation of IDEA. Each state receives a rating based on its performance in implementing IDEA, as assessed through its State Performance Plan. States fall into one of four categories: meets requirements, needs assistance (one year), needs assistance (two or more consecutive years), or needs intervention.
These ratings are important because they clearly demonstrate whether states are meeting their legal responsibilities to students with disabilities, and the 2025 figures are concerning.
This year, ratings improved in only three states, while dropping in five states. Over the 12 years from 2014 to 2025, only six states consistently earned a “Meets Requirements” rating each year. Every other state in the country has failed to meet IDEA requirements at least once in the past decade. This means that less than half of school-age students with disabilities live in states that meet the IDEA requirements. That fact alone should be concerning. But the deeper issue is structural. It’s not that states have suddenly worsened; the system used to evaluate them has worsened.
Starting in 2014, the Department of Education introduced the Results Driven Accountability (RDA) system. RDA aimed to shift focus from paperwork to real student outcomes. On the surface, that seems helpful. However, in practice, it created a scoring system that ranked states against one another.
Even if all states improve at the same rate, some would still end up in the lowest categories. This creates a system where it’s nearly impossible for every state to earn a “Meets Requirements” rating, regardless of their overall improvements. All states could be doing well, yet the scoring would still classify them as winners and losers. The RDA system depends too much on ranking and too little on properly assessing students with disabilities through long-term goals and accurate performance measures. This makes it hard to identify which states are genuinely succeeding and which are falling behind, leading to difficulties in determining which states need more intervention from the federal government.
However, it’s challenging to focus on fixing the inner workings of a system that is being dismantled at the helm. The Department of Education faces budget cuts and significant staff reductions, including those responsible for enforcing IDEA. When oversight diminishes, accountability decreases too. And when accountability weakens, students like me who rely on IDEA protections are the ones most impacted.
The recent government shutdown highlighted the Trump administration’s and the Department of Education’s stance on disability rights and federal oversight. The administration used the shutdown to argue that the Department of Education is merely a channel for distributing funds to the states, and they claimed that states can manage the money independently. However, this view overlooks the department’s true importance. Currently, there are proposals to move the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) into agencies like the Departments of Justice and Labor, which lack the expertise and institutional knowledge needed to protect the rights of students with disabilities. During the shutdown, OCR cases went unresolved, and districts were unable to access important information.
Additionally, recent office closures and staff reductions have already led to thousands of dismissed cases and fewer investigations, leaving students without meaningful protections for their rights. IDEA, OCR, and OSERS are not optional programs, funds, or administrative chores; they are lifelines. They are the reason students with disabilities have a chance at equal education, and weakening them jeopardizes all of that.
If we want the next 50 years to be different from the last for disabled students, we must speak out. We need to advocate for federal investment in special education, stronger oversight, and reforms that guarantee fair and meaningful accountability. Students with disabilities deserve more than just the bare minimum. They deserve schools and states that consistently and fully meet their obligations.
IDEA transformed everything. Now we have to fight to keep it alive.
Angeth Mayen is a second year at the University of Chicago studying political science with a focus on law, public policy, and disability rights. She serves in multiple campus leadership roles and is currently a Policy Fellow with the American Association of People with Disabilities, where she researches federal programs like SSI and SNAP. She hopes to pursue a career in public interest law and policy centered on access, equity, and community impact.