Writing for CBS News, Claire Sibonney published a story about the effects of the US Trump administration’s actions related to children with disabilities. Ms. Sibonney, who is also affiliated with Kaiser Health News, focused especially on the deleterious consequences of these policies on children of color. Her article is entitled, “Tump puts autistic kids in the spotlight and cuts agencies built to protect them.
In the time-honored formula for news reporting, Ms. Sibonney began by describing the case of a child and his family.
At Chain of Lakes Elementary School in Winter Haven, Florida, Josette Smith’s 9-year-old son, Ethan, gets to do what he loves most: crafts, math, and science. That is, when he isn’t being pulled out of class.
Ethan has autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. He was diagnosed with autism in kindergarten after displaying behavior that concerned his relatives: He paced, flapped his arms, and became consumed with highly specific interests, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and dachshunds.
Ms. Sibonney moved from that case into a catalog of actions that have “put autism in the spotlight.” Not only did she point to the executive order on immunizations and the surrounding proclamations about autism, but she also noted that cuts to agencies, including research operations have had deleterious effects.
Many readers of Special Education Today will recognize one of the experts whom Ms. Sibonney consulted in researching her story. She cited longitudinal research by Paul Morgan (see SET stories of 15 October 2021 and 3 April 2025) about demographics of the autism population in US schools (SET 20 April 2025) and quoted Paul’s observations about the problems in sustaining data collection efforts when funds for those efforts are being cut.
This is an informative article that appeared in a widely read source. I am glad that it will have lots of eyeballs and I hope that it will continue the swell of public concern about the direction of policies that affect children with disabilities, their families, and their education.
