Students with disabilities fear Trump cuts

Sleep is a rare commodity at Lindsay Crain’s house.

- BY CAROLYN JONES

LENA DEACY, 16, is among the students threatened by federal cutbacks. "Every family I know is terrified right now," her mother said.

(ZAYDEE SANCHEZ For CallMatters)

Most nights, she and her husband are up dozens of times, tending to their daughter's seizures. The 16-year-old flails her arms, thrashes and kicks — sometimes for hours.But these days, that’s not the only thing keeping Crain awake. The Culver City mother worries that President Trump’s myriad budget cuts could strip their daughter, Lena, of services she needs to go to school, live at home and enjoy a degree of independence that would have been impossible a generation ago.

“Every family I know is terrified right now,” Crain said. “We still have to live our everyday lives, which are challenging enough, but now it feels like our kids’ futures are at stake.”

Trump’s budget includes nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, which funds a wide swath of services for disabled children, including speech, occupational and physical therapy, wheelchairs, in-home aides and medical care.

All children with physical, developmental or cognitive disabilities — in California, nearly 1 million — receive at least some services through Medicaid.

Meanwhile, at the U.S. Department of Education, Trump has gutted the Office of Civil Rights, which is among the agencies that enforce the 50-year-old law granting students with disabilities the right to attend school and receive an education appropriate to their needs.

Before that law was enacted, students with disabilities often didn't attend school at all.