House Appropriators Preserve Special Education but Cut Spending Overall 

On Tuesday, House Appropriators advanced their Fiscal Year 2027 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies spending bill on a party-line vote with Republican-only approval. The bill preserves all parts of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), despite the President's budget request to eliminate the IDEA preschool program and national activities, including personnel preparation, technical assistance, and parental support. It provides a $10 million increase to IDEA Part C for infants, toddlers, and families, and a $35 million increase to IDEA Part B grants to states, of which $10 million may be used by States to conduct a paperwork-reduction pilot. However, the bill rejects the President's proposal to increase IDEA by more than half a billion dollars.  

Overall, the bill provides an $8 billion, or 10 percent, cut to the Department of Education, funding it far below current levels. Among programs proposed for elimination are Title II and the Teacher Quality Partnership program, which support educator preparation and professional development, and the Javits Gifted and Talented grant program, the only federal program specifically targeted to underserved gifted and talented students, including twice-exceptional students. The bill would reduce Title I funds by $2 billion, shrinking federal support for high-poverty schools nationwide, and would cut approximately $300 million from the Institute of Education Sciences, the independent research arm of the Department of Education.  

While the National Center for Special Education Research would not be cut under the House proposal, a separate funding line within IES for Special Education Studies and Evaluations would be eliminated, putting in jeopardy current research, including a nationwide multi-year study on the cost of educating children with disabilities, a topic that has not been examined in more than two decades.  

The spending measure is now positioned for consideration by the full House. However, the process of finalizing a single spending bill for education programs is far from over. The Senate must still draft and approve its own version of the measure, which tends to be a more tempered bill. The two bodies of Congress must come to an agreement before the bill can be signed into law.