A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment beyond the memo, which cited an executive order from President Donald Trump in January that halted federal funding to healthcare providers offering gender transition treatments. That order has been challenged in court.

Medical organizations including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics say that gender-affirming care, including surgical procedures for appropriate patients, represents medically necessary treatment. Healthcare providers who offer these services obtain informed consent, following established clinical guidelines.

In addition to pursuing criminal cases, Bondi also ordered the Justice Department’s Civil Division to pursue cases related to gender-affirming care. For instance, she told its Consumer Protection Branch it should investigate any violations by drug manufacturers or distributors who make false claims in connection with puberty blockers, sex hormones and other drugs.

—

(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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At least 365 grants from the Office of Justice Programs, the department’s largest grant-making arm, were terminated late on Tuesday, said two of the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public.

In fiscal year 2023, that office collectively awarded $4.4 billion in funding, according to the Justice Department’s website.

Among the programs that are being targeted include grants that supported victims of crime, including some specialized for transgender victims, hotlines used by crime victims, human trafficking grants awarded to organizations that work with immigrants and refugees, programs to curb juvenile delinquency and safeguard incarcerated youth, and funding to help state-run hate crime reporting, according to a partial list of terminated grants seen by Reuters.

Jean Bruggeman, who leads the non-profit Freedom Network USA which assists human trafficking victims, said abruptly canceling funding without warning could leave vulnerable victims of domestic abuse out on the streets without access to housing.

“We know that with domestic violence, it’s when survivors leave that the risk of mortality is the highest,” she said.

“We’ve told them you can trust us. We will protect you. Come forward. We will help you and protect you. And now, the government is saying thanks for coming forward. You’re on your own. We don’t care if you live or die.”

The Justice Department could not immediately be reached for a request for comment about criticisms of the cancellation and its impact on victims.

Change in Priorities

Justice Department grants typically run for three years. It is not unusual for a new administration to award different sorts of grants reflecting its priorities, but it is unusual for the department to cut off funding on previously awarded grants that support ongoing programs.

In an email sent to Office of Justice Programs staff on Tuesday, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maureen Henneberg said that canceled grants “no longer support the department’s priorities.”

She added that the new funding priorities will focus on “certain law enforcement operations, combating violent crime, protecting American children, supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and promoting coordination of law enforcement efforts at all levels of government.”

A Justice Department spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.

Reuters could not immediately determine a total dollar value for the canceled grants, though records indicate the cuts at a minimum total of millions of dollars.

Some of the grants that were terminated are not funded by taxpayers, and instead are paid for through fines and penalties collected by the government from convicted felons.

Many Justice Department’s employees who work on managing and awarding the grants did not learn about the cancellations until the grantees were notified on Tuesday, the people said.

The department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, a separate grant-making office, has so far not been hit, one person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear whether the Office of Violence Against Women, a third separate Justice Department grant-making office, was affected.

Justice Department leadership is mulling whether to merge all of the grant-making offices into the Office of Justice Programs to follow President Donald Trump’s executive order to cut costs.

—

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Peter Eisler; Editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis)

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Yelich’s fifth home run this season and first grand slam in more than three years came on a 2-2 fastball from reliever Lou Trivino and broke open what had been a close game. Three batters later, Bauers went deep for his second homer of the season.

Brice Turang added four hits for Milwaukee. Bauers had three hits and William Contreras drove in two runs to help the Brewers win for the fourth time in 11 road games this season.

Pitching Performances

Jose Quintana (3-0) remained unbeaten after allowing one run and six hits in six innings. Quintana, who was a reliever for the Giants in 2021, had three strikeouts and two walks.

Grant Anderson, Bryan Hudson and Joel Payamps each retired three batters to complete the win for the Brewers.

Wilmer Flores had three hits and an RBI for San Francisco.

Giants starter Jordan Hicks (1-3) allowed eight hits and six runs, five earned, in five innings. Since throwing six scoreless innings in his first start of the season, Hicks has been tagged for 20 runs over 21 1/3 innings (8.44 ERA).

Key Moment

With runners at first and second in the sixth inning, Giants catcher Patrick Bailey was charged with a passed ball and then threw wildly into right field for an error that allowed one run to score.

Key Stat

The Giants hit into three double plays.

Up Next

Giants RHP Logan Webb (2-1, 2.40 ERA) faces Brewers RHP Freddy Peralta (2-1, 1.91) on Wednesday.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

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The Cubs were down to their last out in the ninth when Miguel Amaya hit a solo homer off Tanner Scott that landed in the basket in center field, sending a charge through the crowd of 36,425 at Wrigley Field.

After Porter Hodge (2-0) escaped a jam in the top of the 10th, Happ grounded the first pitch from Noah Davis (0-1) into right field. Vidal Bruján scored easily from second as the Cubs poured out of the dugout to celebrate.

Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong homered as Chicago improved to 3-1 on an eight-game homestand. Happ finished with four hits and scored twice.

Tommy Edman, Andy Pages and Will Smith went deep for Los Angeles, which had won five of six. Edman finished with four RBIs.

The Dodgers scored five times in the seventh to take a 10-7 lead. Freddie Freeman had the big blow, a double to left that drove in Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts.

Chicago got two back when Tucker homered against Alex Vesia in the eighth. Then Amaya had the tying shot in the ninth.

The Cubs improved to 3-3 against the Dodgers. The teams close out their season series on Wednesday night.

Crow-Armstrong’s two-run shot off Dustin May made it 7-4 in the fifth. Crow-Armstrong is batting .367 (18 for 49) in his last 12 games.

Key Moment

Pages threw out Happ when he tried to score on Michael Busch’s fly ball to left in the sixth. Happ was originally ruled safe, but the call was overturned after the Dodgers challenged the play.

Key Stat

Edman’s three-run drive in the first was his 15th homer against the Cubs. He has 67 career homers.

Up Next

Matthew Boyd (1-2, 2.01 ERA) starts for the Cubs on Wednesday night. The Dodgers are going with a bullpen game.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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“I have no intention of firing him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates,” he added.

Trump’s statement was the first de-escalation after days of withering criticisms he has lobbed at Powell for not further cutting interest rates since Trump resumed office in January.

The broadsides were often accompanied by threatening remarks, such as last week’s social media posting that Powell’s termination as Fed chair “cannot come fast enough,” that spooked financial markets that view the Fed’s independence as underpinning its credibility on the global financial stage.

But while he seems to have set aside those threats for now, his criticisms of Fed rate policy remain just as pointed.

“We think that it’s a perfect time to lower the rate, and we’d like to see our chairman be early or on time, as opposed to late,” Trump said.

—

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Anna Driver)

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Bill Owens, executive producer of television’s most popular and influential newsmagazine since 2019, said in a note to staff that it has “become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ’60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”

“The show is too important to the country,” he wrote. “It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer.”

Dispute Over Editorial Independence

Trump sued “60 Minutes” for $20 billion last fall, claiming it deceptively edited an interview with his Democratic election opponent Kamala Harris. CBS denied it had done anything to give an advantage to Harris, and released the full transcript of its interview.

When Trump took office for his second term, his Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, announced CBS would be investigated for the same issue.

At the same time, CBS parent Paramount Global, run by Shari Redstone, is seeking approval for a merger with Skydance Media, founded by Larry Ellison. They are reportedly in mediation to settle the lawsuit with Trump, a prospect that has been bitterly opposed by Owens and others at “60 Minutes.”

Lawsuit and Merger Pressure Mount

With this backdrop, “60 Minutes” has run an extraordinary series of tough stories about the new administration since it took office. The president angrily denounced the show on social media after its April 13 episode featured critical stories about Ukraine and Greenland, saying CBS should “pay a big price” for going after him.

Owens was the third executive producer at the Sunday night newsmagazine, known for its ticking stopwatch. Only Don Hewitt, the show’s founder, and Jeff Fager preceded him. Owens did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Tuesday. Owens has worked at CBS News for 37 years, 25 of them at “60 Minutes.”

“Having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,” he said in the memo.

Broader Conflicts With the Press

CBS News’ top executive, Wendy McMahon, said in a statement that Owens “has led ’60 Minutes’ with unwavering integrity, curiosity and a deep commitment to the truth. He has championed the kind of journalism that informs, enlightens and often changes the national conversation.”

It was not immediately clear if any particular event triggered the decision, or if Owens was told he had to leave.

“60 Minutes” is famously insular, run as an independent fiefdom within CBS News, and Owens said that McMahon agrees that he should be replaced by a current producer there. His top deputy is Tanya Simon, daughter of the late “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon.

Trump has battled the press on several levels since taking office again. The FCC is investigating several media companies, the administration is working to shut down Voice of America and other government-run outlets, and The Associated Press has sued the administration for reducing its access to events because it has not renamed the Gulf of Mexico in line with Trump’s executive order.

David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

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Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump spoke by phone, two weeks after the two met in Washington. Trump wrote on his social networking site Truth Social that the two spoke about trade and Iran, among other issues. “The call went very well—We are on the same side of every issue,” he wrote.

Netanyahu’s office did not have an immediate comment, but his hastily-arranged visit to Washington was not deemed a rousing success after he appeared to fail to secure the support he wanted from Trump on issues such as stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons, reducing Trump’s tariffs, the influence of Turkey and the war in Gaza.

Israel’s 18-month offensive against Hamas has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, raising fears that much of it may never be rebuilt. The territory already had a shortage of heavy equipment, which is also needed to rescue people from the rubble after Israeli strikes and to clear vital roads.

The Israeli military said it struck and destroyed around 40 pieces of heavy machinery. Israel said Hamas used the vehicles, including bulldozers, for planting explosives, digging tunnels, and breaching fences, including during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

A municipality in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza said a strike on its parking garage destroyed nine bulldozers provided by Egypt and Qatar, which helped broker the ceasefire that took hold in January. Israel ended the truce last month, renewing its bombardment and ground operations and sealing the territory’s 2 million Palestinians off from all imports, including food, fuel and medical supplies.

The strikes also destroyed a water tanker and a mobile generator provided by aid groups, and a truck used to pump sewage, the Jabaliya al-Nazla municipality said.

Israeli Strikes Kill 17, Mostly Children

An Israeli airstrike early Tuesday destroyed a multistory home in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing nine people, including four women and four children, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead included a 2-year-old girl and her parents.

“They were asleep, sleeping in God’s peace. They had nothing to do with anything,” said Awad Dahliz, the slain girl’s grandfather. “What is the fault of this innocent child?”

Also on Tuesday, a strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed three children and their parents, and a strike in Nuseirat killed a man and two children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service and local hospitals.

The Israeli military did not have immediate comment on the strikes, but has accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure for militant purposes.

Israel’s air and ground war has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 people hostage. They are still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Hamas has said it will only free the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire. Israel has said it will keep fighting until the hostages are returned and Hamas has been either destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile. It has pledged to hold onto so-called security zones in Gaza indefinitely.

Islamist Killed in Lebanon

An Israeli drone strike southeast of Beirut killed Hussein Atwi, a member of the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a regionwide Sunni Islamist political movement. The group said he was leaving for work when the drone struck.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said another person was killed in an Israeli strike on the southern Tyre province, without providing further details. Israel said that its air force carried out the strike near Tyre and targeted a militant commander.

Israel has continued to carry out regular strikes across Lebanon despite reaching a ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group in November. Israel says it is targeting militants and weapons caches. The Lebanese government says 190 people have been killed and 485 wounded since the ceasefire took hold.

Hezbollah began firing on Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Israel responded with airstrikes, and the conflict in Lebanon escalated into a full-blown war in September when Israel carried out a heavy wave of strikes and killed most of Hezbollah’s top leadership.

Palestinian Militants Arrested in Syria

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said two of its senior members were arrested in Syria “without any explanation.” The Syrian government has not commented.

Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group allied with Hamas and also backed by Iran, had an established presence in Syria during the rule of former President Bashar Assad. It sent fighters to Lebanon to support Hezbollah during the war with Israel.

The arrests came days after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Damascus and met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa. It was Abbas’ first visit to Syria since before the 2011 uprising and the civil war that eventually led to Assad’s overthrow last year.

Abbas leads the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, dominated by political rivals of Hamas.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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The cardinals met Tuesday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10.

The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. U.S. President Donald Trump said he and first lady Melania Trump plan to attend, and Argentine President Javier Milei is also expected.

The Argentine pope died Monday at age 88 after a stroke put him in a coma and led his heart to fail. He had been recovering in his apartment after being hospitalized for five weeks with pneumonia. He made his last public appearance Sunday, delivering an Easter blessing and greeting followers from his popemobile, looping around St. Peter’s Square.

His Easter appearance from the same loggia where he was introduced to the world as the first pope from the Americas on March 13, 2013, was a fitting bookend to a 12-year papacy that sought to shake up the church and return it to its Gospel-mandated mission of caring for the poorest.

Vatican Officials Remember Francis

“He truly gave everything he had, up to the end,” said Sister Nathalie Becquart, one of the highest-ranking women at the Vatican.

While the ordinary faithful will have an opportunity to pay their respects beginning Wednesday, Vatican officials were allowed to say their goodbyes starting Monday evening. Speaking to reporters after she paid her respects, Becquart marveled at Francis’ final Easter salute to his flock. “He really walked with his people,” she said.

Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said it was specifically Francis’ effort to promote the role of women in the church that will be one of his greatest legacies. Ravasi noted that Francis chose to be buried near his favorite icon of the Madonna, in a basilica across town, and not in the grottoes underneath St. Peter’s, as is typical for popes.

“He wanted to be buried under the shadow of a woman, in this case Maria,” said Ravasi, the Vatican’s former culture minister as he arrived for Tuesday’s first meeting of cardinals. “That is significant, his desire for the church to do more for women.”

The first images of Francis’ body were released Tuesday, showing him in red vestments and his bishop’s miter in a wooden casket, with the Vatican secretary of state praying over him in the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel where he lived and died.

In his final will, Francis said he wanted to be buried at St. Mary Major Basilica, which is home to the Salus Populi Romani icon of Mary. Before and after every foreign trip, Francis would go to the basilica to pray before the Byzantine-style painting that features an image of Mary, draped in a blue robe, holding the infant Jesus, who in turn holds a jeweled golden book.

Francis stopped by the basilica on his way home from the Gemelli hospital on March 23, after his 38-day stay, to deliver flowers to be placed before the icon. He returned April 12 to pray before it one last time.

The World Reacts

Bells tolled in chapels, churches and cathedrals around the world and flags flew at half-staff in Italy, India, Taiwan and the U.S. after Francis’ death was announced by the camerlengo, who takes charge of the Vatican after a pope’s death. Soccer matches in Italy and Argentina were suspended in honor of the pope who was a lifelong fan of the San Lorenzo soccer club.

World leaders praised Francis for his moral leadership and compassion, while ordinary faithful remembered his simplicity and humanity.

“Like every Argentine, I think he was a rebel,” said 23-year-old Catalina Favaro, who had come to pay her respects in the Buenos Aires church where Francis discovered his priestly vocation. “He may have been contradictory, but that was nice, too.”

In East Timor, where Francis’ final outdoor Mass drew nearly half of the population last September, President Jose Ramos-Horta praised Francis’ courage. “Pope Francis was a brave man who was not afraid to speak out against the rulers of the world who seek war, but do not want to seek peace,” Ramos-Horta said.

“He challenged the powerful to act with justice, called nations to welcome the stranger, and reminded us that our common home — this Earth — is a gift we must protect for future generations,” said Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who is Muslim. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and has around 30 million Catholics, representing about 14% of the population.

Viewing the Pope’s Coffin

The pope’s formal apartments in the Apostolic Palace and in the Santa Marta hotel were sealed Monday evening, following a centuries-old ritual. Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who as camerlengo had the task of announcing the death and confirming it once the cause was determined, presided over the rituals.

Francis chose not to live in the palace, but in a two-room suite in Santa Marta on the other side of Vatican City. He died there and his body was transferred to the hotel chapel in the lobby, where the private viewing was underway Tuesday for Vatican officials and members of the pontifical household.

In changes made by Francis last year, his body was not placed in three wooden coffins, as it had been for previous popes. Rather, Francis was placed in a simplified wooden coffin with a zinc coffin inside.

Once in St. Peter’s, his casket will not be put on an elevated bier — as was the case with past popes — but will just be be placed simply facing the pews, with the Paschal candle nearby.

“He was a pope who didn’t change his path when it came to getting (his hands) dirty,” Francis’ vicar for Rome, Cardinal Baldassarre Reina, said in a Mass in his honor. “For him, poor people and migrants were the sacrament of Jesus.”

Choosing the Next Pope

After the funeral, there are nine days of official mourning, known as the “novendiali.” During this period, cardinals arrive in Rome and meet privately before the conclave.

To give everyone time to assemble, the conclave must begin 15 to 20 days after the “sede vacante” — the “vacant See” — is declared, although it can start sooner if the cardinals agree.

Once the conclave begins, cardinals vote in secret sessions in the Sistine Chapel. After voting sessions, the ballots are burned in a special stove. Black smoke indicates that no pope has been elected, while white smoke indicates that the cardinals have chosen the next head of the Catholic Church.

The one who has secured two-thirds of the votes wins. If he accepts, his election is announced by a cardinal from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica who tells the world: “Habemus Papam” — Latin for “We have a pope.”

Associated Press reporters Paolo Santalucia and Silvia Stellacci contributed. Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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—

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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President Donald Trump has promised to keep special education intact, even as he dismantles the federal department that has overseen it for nearly a half century. But some experts and parents in California fear Trump’s policies will imperil the program on multiple fronts, and undoing decades of progress for disabled students.

“Students in special education are equally as important as students who aren’t, but that hasn’t always been the case. The disability community has fought hard for where we are now,” said Gina Gandolfi, a former special education teacher in San Bernardino County whose 10-year-old son has Down syndrome. “What if those services are taken away? Kids with disabilities will go back to being second-class students.”

Last month, Trump said he’s moving special education from the Department of Education, which he’s described as wasteful and inefficient, to the Department of Health and Human Services, under the direction of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Enforcement of special education laws would likely move to the Justice Department. Although the laws surrounding special education wouldn’t change, there’s likely to be disruptions as the program moves to a new department, especially one not focused on education and that’s undergoing a 20% reduction in its workforce.

More than 40 disability rights groups sent a strongly worded letter to Congress in early April imploring members to preserve special education funding, keep the program in the Department of Education and leave the department intact. The authors said the plan to move special education to Health and Human Services is “short-sighted, insulting and unacceptable.”

Trump has not announced cuts to special education funding, and Congress left its funding intact in the most recently passed budget. But at the same time, Trump has threatened to cut school funding to states — including California — that defy his orders to eliminate diversity programs or scrap protections for transgender students. The federal government currently covers about 10% of California’s total cost for special education.

Beyond school funding, Republicans in Congress are debating cuts to Medicaid, which would have a deep impact on services for students with disabilities and their families. School districts use Medicaid to help pay for speech and occupational therapy and mental health services for students with disabilities. In addition, parents with disabled children rely on California’s regional centers — funded in part by Medicaid — for diagnoses, in-home visits, equipment like wheelchairs and walkers and other services.

Impacts on Special Education Services

Cuts to any of those programs would have a cascading effect that would upend the disability community, said Kristin Wright, former director of special education for California and currently the executive director of prevention, intervention and inclusive practices at the Sacramento County Office of Education.

For example, if families lose services from a Medicaid-funded agency such as a regional center, they may have to quit working to care for their disabled child. That could potentially catapult a family into poverty.

“It’s a fragile ecosystem,” Wright said. “These programs have evolved together. When you pull any one strand away, it affects everything else.”

Wright fears that the changes would set special education back decades. Until the 1970s, when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act passed, many children with disabilities didn’t attend school at all. And for many years, they were often in separate classrooms, segregated from their classmates without disabilities. Now, in California, most students with disabilities spend the majority of their time in general education classes, with the assistance of aides and other supports, where they tend to do better academically and socially.

“We’ve come so far, moving away from pathologizing people and using a medical model of disability toward a social model, where disability is seen as a natural part of the human condition,” Wright said. “This feels like we’re backpedaling. As a society, we’re going to have to decide what we care about, and how committed we are to educating every student.”

About 14% of K-12 students in California are enrolled in special education, with disabilities ranging from mild learning disorders to severe autism or traumatic brain injuries.

Typically, students receive extra services from therapists, aides and special education teachers, which can be costly. California spent about $13 billion on special education last year, with about 10% coming from the federal government. That doesn’t include money that schools get from Medicaid. If Medicaid is cut, schools would have to find the money elsewhere.

Effects on Schools

Ginese Quann is a special education director for the El Dorado County Office of Education and oversees the Special Education Local Plan Area, a cost-sharing consortium for 464 California charter schools. Quann said she’s not overly worried about the federal changes — yet.

Special education funding has always been in flux, she said, and the state has its own systems for monitoring and enforcing the program. Even if the federal government cuts its enforcement of special education laws, she said, parents will still be able to file complaints with the state.

She’s less sure about the transition to the Department of Health and Human Services. Even in a best-case scenario, there’s likely to be some disruptions in payments or services, she said. In a worst-case scenario, the program will be overseen by people with little expertise in how to educate students with disabilities.

The best she can do, Quann said, is to “try and cushion schools from changes at the federal level, so ideally there’s no impact on students. I see this as our biggest challenge right now.”

But even minor disruptions could be damaging for schools that rely on a smooth-running special education system. One of those schools is the Hanna Academy, a small nonprofit boarding school in Sonoma County that contracts with school districts to serve students with acute behavioral challenges. Federal changes to special education could have lasting effects on students, and jeopardize students’ and staff safety, said principal Courtney Jackson.

The academy, which opened in 1945, serves about 50 students from around California. The students receive extensive therapy, vocational training and academic and life-skills classes, delivered in small groups with numerous teachers and aides who can intervene when students have meltdowns or violent outbursts.

Budget cuts will likely mean fewer adults in classrooms, which could endanger students as well as staff. It also means students won’t get the individual attention they need and their progress will almost certainly drop off, Jackson said.

“We’re dealing with the most delicate population in education. When you start removing services in a careless manner, without a backup plan, it just causes chaos,” Jackson said. “The damage will be so deep, it could take years to fix and be far more expensive.”

Future of Special Education Law

Special education has traditionally had bipartisan support, with champions in both parties. The Trump administration has promised to leave special education unscathed, but that would require continued funding, said Rorie Fitzpatrick, vice president for K-12 systems at the nonprofit research and consulting firm WestEd.

“The biggest concern is the future of IDEA,” Fitzpatrick said, referring to the 1975 legislation that created special education. “Students with disabilities have a right to a free, appropriate public education under the law. But you need well-trained staff and funding to make that happen. If you cut that funding, you’re gutting IDEA by default.”

Gandolfi, whose son has Down syndrome, said special education has made a world of difference for her son, Nathan, a fourth grader in Redlands Unified. He loves his friends in his general education classroom, and gets extra services like speech and occupational therapy, one-to-one classroom support and academic help through special education. Through the local regional center, he attends classes in swimming, drumming and social skills, as well as camps. He loves hip hop dance, movies, singing and his two younger siblings.

“He’s living his best life. He’s full of joy. He looks forward to school every day,” Gandolfi said. “We want him to have a long, purposeful, meaningful life, and having the support of special ed makes that possible.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

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