New Justice Department memo questions decades of protections for people with disabilities

Key Points:

• A recent Justice Department memo challenges longstanding protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), specifically questioning the enforceability of the Olmstead decision that mandates community-based services over institutionalization for people with disabilities.
• The memo could lead states to reduce or eliminate home and community-based services, potentially forcing disabled individuals into institutions, which advocates warn could harm their health and quality of life.
• The Trump administration is also proposing to shift oversight of special education from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services, a move critics say risks re-medicalizing education and undermining inclusive, mainstream schooling for students with disabilities.
• Disability advocates, including Maria Town of the American Association of People With Disabilities, express deep concern that these policy changes threaten to roll back decades of progress in disability rights and integration.
• The combined impact of these shifts could significantly erode access to meaningful education and community living for disabled Americans, reversing gains made over the past 50 years.