**THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE  AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT**

##### **July 24, 2020**

 

This Sunday, July 26, 2020, will mark 30 years since the  Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law by President George  H.W. Bush, providing those living with disabilities a broad spectrum of  protections against discrimination on the basis of disability. We at the U.S.  Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) want to pause and  celebrate this momentous legislation. 

OCR  has worked tirelessly to enforce federal disability laws. In fiscal year 2019  alone, OCR resolved 6,210 complaints alleging one or more violations of Title  II of the ADA or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Over the course of FYs  2017, 2018 and 2019, OCR resolved 5,476 Title II or Section 504 allegations  with change. By way of comparison, this is over 1,500 more allegations than the  prior administration resolved with change during FYs 2014, 2015 and 2016  combined. Additionally, during FY 2019 alone, OCR launched over 700 proactive  investigations in two national initiatives focused on improving outcomes for  students with disabilities. 

This year, in FY 2020, the COVID-19  pandemic forced students, teachers, parents, and school personnel to navigate  unprecedented and difficult obstacles to education, including the transition to  online (or distance) learning. As the nation faced more distance-learning  challenges, OCR was well-positioned to help by ensuring technology used in  educational settings is accessible to those with disabilities. Through a  combination of OCR’s National Website Accessibility Team and the Center for  Outreach, Prevention, Education and Nondiscrimination (OPEN Center), OCR was  able to provide crucial guidance and tailored technical assistance to  recipients and students during a time when everyday seemed to bring new  technological challenges arising from an evolving educational landscape. To  date, OCR’s guidance on topics related to COVID-19 and the transition to  distance learning has included:
              - Providing  Webinars on “ Online Education  and Website Accessibility ” and “ Civil Rights and  COVID-19 ;”
              - Publishing  a “ Fact Sheet  Addressing the Risk of COVID-12 in Schools while Protecting the Civil Rights of  Students ”  and a “ Supplemental Fact  Sheet Addressing the Risk of COVID-19 in Preschool, Elementary, and Secondary  Schools while Serving Children with Disabilities ” to alert  recipients to potential civil rights violations during the transition to  distance learning; and
              - Publishing  a “ Questions and  Answers: Information on Protecting Higher Education Students’ Civil Rights  during COVID-19 National Emergency ” to provide technical assistance on civil  rights obligations under Title VI, Title IX, and federal disability laws for  postsecondary institutions.

Beginning in December  2018, OCR launched series of proactive investigations as part of a national  initiative to increase online and website accessibility for students with  disabilities. As part of this effort, OCR forged an innovative, nationwide team  of experienced civil rights attorneys, investigators, and information  technology experts to address  the accessibility of online educational materials in elementary, secondary and  postsecondary schools and help recipients comply with the federal disability  laws. This nationwide team not only investigates  complaints alleging issues of online and website accessibility, but also  provides in-depth technical assistance to recipients. They work with schools,  libraries, and their vendors to better understand how to remediate, or avoid  altogether, technological barriers to access for individuals with disabilities. 

In January 2019, the  Department launched a nationwide initiative to address the possible  inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion (R&S) on students with  disabilities which includes three components that draw on the work and  expertise of OCR and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative  Services (OSERS). For the first time in the agency’s history, OCR opened R&S-focused  compliance reviews—across all 12 regional enforcement offices—to ensure that  school districts are complying with federal disability laws. As a second  component of this initiative, OCR is engaging in a substantial effort to  improve R&S data submitted to the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC).  Beginning in March 2019, OCR contacted a large number of school districts with  2015-16 CRDC R&S data anomalies and, based on the success of those efforts,  in August 2019, OCR reached out to *all* school districts asking that they  address any errors in reporting R&S incidents for the 2017-18 CRDC.   Finally,  the Department's initiative involves the provision of R&S technical  assistance to SEAs and school districts to support children with disabilities,  their families, and the individuals in schools who serve those students and to ensure  schools are collecting and reporting accurate data related to the use of  R&S. Between the compliance reviews launched by the  regional enforcement offices, CRDC data quality reviews initiated by  headquarters, and the coordinated provision of technical assistance, OCR will  interact with countless recipients and help them better understand their  obligations under Section 504 and Title II, improve the reliability of data  collected via the CRDC, and correct violations of federal disability laws impacting  students with disabilities everywhere.

As we celebrate this day, we hope that you can pause  and reflect on what this country has achieved over the past 30 years in  preserving and protecting equal access for individuals with disabilities.

For more  information about the ADA and the work of OCR, please contact OCR’s Center for  Outreach, Prevention, Education, and Non-discrimination at OPEN@ed.gov or  visit www.ed.gov/ocr.  Or, if you need assistance or have questions  about web accessibility, our Web Accessibility Team can be reached via email at  OCRWebAccessTA@ed.gov.  You can also watch  the OCR Short Webinar on Online Education and Website Accessibility here and the webinar on Students with Disabilities and the Use of Restraint and  Seclusion in K-12 Public Schools here.