DeVos: Low expectation for students with disabilities must end

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos says too many students with disabilities are caught in a cycle of low academic expectations and that the status quo of schools doing the minimum legally required to educate them must end.

“Too often, the families of disabled children have felt that their children are not being adequately challenged academically or given the support needed to grow and thrive,” she wrote in a commentary for Education Week.

“To these parents, it often seems as if the school district is content with simply passing their child along, rather than focusing on helping him or her progress and grow academically,” DeVos wrote. “They recognize that the de minimis standard isn’t working for their child, but, sadly, they often do not have the opportunity to access something better.”

In the commentary, the secretary focuses on the impact of a recent and unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision, Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, which held that a child with autism is entitled to an individual education program that requires more than the "de minimis," or minimum, progress set by the school.

RELATED: Betsy DeVos through the years

“When it comes to educating students with disabilities, failure is not acceptable,” she wrote. “De minimis isn’t either.”

The commentary serves to highlight the recent Q&A document the Department of Education released last week that outlines to impact of the court’s decision on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other federal laws and regulations that pertain to students with disabilities.

Her remarks also come as she mulls the elimination of two major Obama-era civil rights regulations that would impact students with disabilities: One aimed at stemming the school-to-prison pipeline by prodding schools to reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions of students of color and students with disabilities, both of whom receive such disciplinary actions at disproportionately high rates; and the second aimed at ensuring states are paying attention to whether their students of color are being identified as having learning disabilities at a greater rate than white students.

The short, 520-word commentary did not touch on the regulations, though the fate of those regulations will fuel the already charged debate that is set to consume the education sector in the coming months.

“Tolerating low-expectations for children with disabilities must end,” she wrote.

Copyright 2017 U.S. News & World Report