Special Ed Shift Sparks Disability Rights Alarm | Raleigh News

Raleigh News Today | 2 Min News | The Daily News Now! · Jul 1, 2026 · 1m

Special education oversight is being handed to Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose past views on disability have alarmed advocates. Combined with new Justice Department guidance weakening integration mandates, this move signals a dangerous retreat from decades of progress toward inclusion. Critics fear a shift to a “medical model” of disability — seeing it as something to be cured — rather than a “social model” that values accommodation and community participation. Families worry essential services will vanish, pushing disabled individuals back toward isolation…