Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities

Introduced by Representative Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) in the 116th Congress, the Protection and Advocacy in Education Act would provide dedicated grant funding for the P&A Network to protect and advocate for the rights of students with disabilities.Download this Fact Sheet in PDF format.The Needs of Students with DisabilitiesStudents with disabilities and their families face numerous obstacles at school, including, low expectations, inconsistent service delivery and disproportionate discipline practices which too often result in poor education outcomes for youth with disabilities thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty. For example, according to the 2017–18 Civil Rights Data Collection, even though students with disabilities served by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) represented 13% of all public school students, 80% of students who were subjected to physical restraint were students with disabilities and 77% of students subjected to seclusion were students with disabilities. In the 2018-2019 school year, of the millions of students receiving services under IDEA, only 73 percent graduated with a high school diploma which is below the graduation rate for students without disabilities.These statistics are alarming and discouraging. Parents and guardians of children with disabilities have few resources to help them understand and navigate the complex education system,…