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Silence is not golden, when a U.S. Department of Education resource website for parents and teachers of students with disabilities has been down almost three weeks, with no response yet from Secretary Betsy DeVos on when it will go back up.
“I am hearing from parents who have been impacted by the absence of this critical resource — but I have still not received a response from Secretary DeVos to the questions I asked more than a week ago on parents’ behalf,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Thursday.
The website, set up under President George W. Bush, helps educators, advocates and parents navigate the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). In particular, it explains citizens’ rights under IDEA.
It went down, supposedly with technical difficulties, shortly before DeVos took office after a contentious nomination battle, surviving a 51-50 confirmation vote with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie.
In a letter to DeVos last week, Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., wrote that a a valuable and non-controversial resource had been taken away, writing:
“We are deeply concerned that prior to your confirmation and arrival at the Department, the centalized website for the IDEA became inaccessible to the public . . .and is now redirecting people to a site for the Office of Special Education Programs.
The new destination “lacks much of the information previously available,” Murray and Cantwell wrote.
The two senators, both Democrats, have received no response from DeVos. Both vocally opposed appointment of the Republican mega-donor, an advocate of school vouchers and charter schools, to the Cabinet post.
The Senate’s Republican rulers allowed only a single confirmation hearing on the DeVos nomination. Each senator had a single five minute period to ask questions. Still, the Cabinet nominee delivered a weak performance that helped cost the votes of two Republican lawmakers, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
As Murray said Thursday:
“During her confirmation hearing, Secretary DeVos said she was confused about the federal law protecting students with disabilities, but I am hoping that this confusion is cleared up and she moves quickly to restore this resource and fully explain what happened.”
The senators, in their letter to DeVos last week, asked that the website be restored, and that “this website will not be stripped down in any way during your tenure.”
They asked for “a detailed plan for restoring the information previously available, including information about citizens’ rights under the disability act.”
Again, they have received no reply.
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