Advocacy organizations promote public lobbying to protect US ED
CEC encouraged US citizens to call legislators to keep special education programs housed in the Department of Education.
Professional organizations, including the Council for Exceptional Children and some of its affiliates,1 distributed messages in early March encouraging members to participate in a coordinated effort to lobby US legislators to keep the offices devoted to special education programs and the functions associated with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act housed in the US Education Department. The effort is slated to occur 5 March 2026, when the organizations recommend that people participate in a “National Call Day Opposing Moving IDEA out of the U.S. Department of Education!”
A mailer from CEC’s Division for Leaders & Legacy provided the following:
Please plan on calling your U.S. House Representative and two U.S. Senators that represent you on March 5, 2026. Please call anytime between 9 am and 5 pm eastern time on March 5, 2026. When you call, please urge them to tell the U.S. Department of Education not to move special education programs such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) out of the Education Department.
CEC often provides a directory so that people may identify the individual legislators whom they should call, but I didn’t find one this time. However, here is a link to a list of the office phone numbers for the 100 US Senators. Also, see the explanation from CEC on its page headed “Support Children With Disabilities: Preserve the Department of Education.” (Some of the content on the CEC page appears to be more generic, less specifically focused on the 5 March call-in day. Still, it’s potentially helpful.) Find resources to help readers to participate at the Legislative Action Center of CEC. I think these resources are available to the general public; that is, one can see them even without having to log in as a member of CEC.
For Dear Readers who are citizens of the US, I encourage you to participate in this effort. If you call by telephone, you almost certainly will speak with one the legislator’s staff members; that person will take notes about the call, so tell the staff member specifically that you are a constituent and briefly deliver the message. There’s no need to engage in a debate; just tell her or him what’s important to you succinctly and politely, and then say ‘goodby’ so that the staffer can get on to taking the next call. The offices of the legislators get a lot of mail and phone messages, and they track those messages. If most senators and representatives hear from lots (and lots) of constituents with the same basic message all on one day, they will probably figure out that our kids’ education is important and that they should protect it.
Footnote
I do not have a list identifying each of the organizations. Importantly, however, I’m pretty dan sure that some of the people who helped create this lobbying effort are regular readers of Special Education Today. Our thanks go to them for their work. 👃🏽👏🏼💚