The Trump administration has taken the government shutdown as an opportunity to end federal oversight of the education services offered to more than 8 million children with disabilities in America. Last month, the Department of Education attempted to fire nearly every staff member left at the Office of Special Education Programs—an action now stuck in litigation. The department had already canceled millions of dollars in grants to provide teacher training and parental support for students with disabilities, and it is now “exploring additional partnerships” to move special-education services elsewhere in the government. Ostensibly, these cuts and administrative changes are part of a broader effort to empower states. But whatever the motive, the result is clear: The government has abandoned its commitment to an equitable education for all children.

This attack did not come out of nowhere. Over the course of five decades, Congress has repeatedly weakened the transformative law that has governed education for disabled students, putting it in the precarious and dysfunctional position it was in when Donald Trump took office.

President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act into law on November 29, 1975. It mandated that all children with any form of disability must be provided a free public education and that they be educated alongside children without disabilities “to the maximum extent appropriate.” This l