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Sara Nović

@novicsara.bsky.social

10K followers 1.4K following 3.1K posts

Author TRUE BIZ + GIRL AT WAR 🧏🏻 deafie | they/she/👉🏼 |📍Philly https://buttondown.com/signs+wonders https://linktr.ee/Novic

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Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · Feb 23

I knew a Holocaust survivor who talked about the importance of notetaking under authoritarianism, to track what normal was and how it shifted. Here's that 🧵 with respect to disability, itself a canary in the fascist coal mine: www.disability-rights-watch.com/2025/02/09/w...

Week 1: What Happened? - Disability Rights Watch

Things are happening quickly. We'll include a weekly round up of disability-related concerns, events, and polices on this site. Removal of the "Accessibility" page, and all ASL content from the White ...

www.disability-rights-watch.com

Reposted by Sara Nović

Michael Edison Hayden @michaelehayden.bsky.social · 5h

“They are highly organized … [they] have purchased their own animal costumes”

Andy ngo mad about muppets again — this time in Chicago

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 1h

As someone who has been organizing trying to warn folks about these exact plans written out in Project 2025 and being screamed at and hate mailed consistently by parents that I was lying and fear-mongering, I can attest that's not always the case--but I'm glad it is for most of your students.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 2h

Yes, well put.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 3h

I didn't vote for this. Hundreds of millions of us did not vote for this. If you wanna kick someone while they're down, please go elsewhere.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 8h

Same I spent so much time translating P2025 into ASL and people were just calling me crazy the whole time 😩😩

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 8h

What... Are you talking about? I'm a disabled organizer with a disabled kid trying to explain to folks that they do in fact need the protections of the special education office that closed this weekend; when I warned this would happen, they said I was fear mongering.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 8h

😢😢

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

Yeah I think they will either way. Like on the flip side, our LEA is horrid and we have to threaten to sue to get out placements... now there is no suit to be threatened 🤷🏻

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

Yeah, unclear, because states will either scramble to reallocate and cover... Or not. Only certainty at this point is this will create an unprecedented level of chaos.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

LEAs (at least in the states I am familiar with) are district employees. Their function is to make sure the district complies with the letter of the law so they don't get sued. If they don't need to worry about getting sued, though, these meetings are going to look a lot different not in a good way

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

This is just a brief overview. The lawsuits will be plentiful, no doubt. Does that matter anymore? Not sure. Dark times ahead for disabled students in the interim, maybe indefinitely. \11

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

And, the office of Rehabilitative Services (RSA). My sources say that whole office is gone. This means no funding, oversight, or support for states' Vocational Rehab programs, which help disabled people transition into the workforce with guidance, funding for secondary coursework and job placement.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

Many other grants and programs! Data collection! Trainings for special ed teachers and support workers. Bye!

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

But wait, there's more! OSERS funds/liases with Gallaudet/NTID, Helen Keller Center for DeafBlind, American Printing House for the Blind etc. No one disbursing funding or supporting those. Liasion position is also written into the Education of the Deaf Act, so super illegal for them to be fired.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

(A lot of people are about to learn the hard way that their district is not complying with the IEP process out of the goodness of their hearts, or because they have high moral ideals about inclusion. At the administrative level, they exist almost entirely not to get the district sued.)

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

Now--IDEA is still law, of course. But what happens if a district who has either been minimally complying or is actually trying their best but has zero money realizes there are no legal oversight or consequences for violating it anymore? No one works there. No one investigates complaints.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

Today, it is often *still* a fight to get kids the services they need. Districts are cash-strapped, ableist af, or both! IDEA has a built in process of escalation that parents can follow to get a school to comply with their kid's legal rights.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

The bigger issue, though, is oversight. OSERS and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) exist to make sure that students are not being discriminated against. OSERS specifically exists because before it and IDEA, districts would just say no, we don't do disabilities. And that was that.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

The federal government pays about 13-40% of IDEA related costs via formula grants on a state by state basis. This is already VERY not enough money. Now there is no one in the office to physically disburse these funds, which, btw P2025 planned to do away with anyway.

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

First, OSERS oversees the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) the law that gives disabled kids a right to K-12 public education, and accommodations and specialized instruction through the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. So first, but actually the smaller concern, funding:

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 11h

Yesterday we received word that the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) within Dept of Ed (DoEd) was gutted--right now we believe there is no one or nearly no one left. But what does it mean? 1/11

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 13h

A lot of parents about to learn that their nondisabled privileges do not extend to their kid no matter how much they attempt to make said kid's disability about them
... and also that your IEP's LEA was not in fact operating out of the goodness of their heart in providing supports. 💀

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 14h

as it always has been, from 504-ADA and up through due process. Whether any of that will matter anymore, esp with SCOTUS opting out of reality, will be another question though 🫠

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 14h

I'm also disabled so I know what it's like as an adult too. And no, I definitely don't mean parents will replace a federal department. That was the answer to your question of what "calmer heads" will fight the power. The answer is direct action and lawsuits by disabled folks, and their families...

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 14h

I mathed them. Per census, there are 245 million US citizens eligible to vote (though not necessarily registered to). 77+ million voted for DT, 75 mil for Kamala.