Special ed website restored

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Department of Education website that explains the key protections in federal law for students with disabilities is now up and working again, federal officials said Friday.

The website went dark after new Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the Senate, intensifying the concerns of special education advocates who were already questioning DeVos’s commitment to special education. The advocates said DeVos seemed unaware in her confirmation hearings of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA. for more than a week, visitors were redirected to a site with much less information, and critics were further dismayed that she didn’t respond to questions about what happened to the IDEA.ed.gov website.

On Friday, DeVos finally issued this statement:

“This IDEA.ed.gov site and its server hosting IDEA. ed.gov were neglected for nearly four years,” DeVos said. “This behavior is unacceptable. The restored IDEA.ed.gov site has been moved to a new server, and I’ve instructed Department staff to begin working with stakeholders to build a new and improved site. This exercise is an example of complacency I won’t accept, and I remain committed to improving the Department and its services.”

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said DeVos’s claim that the site had been neglected was “patently false.”

“Materials on IDEA. ed.gov were posted and regularly linked to updated materials throughout the Obama administration, though the website could be more easily accessible,” she said in a statement. “My staff and I referred to the resources on a regular basis because they were an excellent source of guidance and information about the federal IDEA law.”

Education officials also explained that the website went offline on Feb. 8, because the server hosting the site crashed.

That evening, the site was redirected to a page hosting the most pertinent information, because thorough testing indicated the existing server was not stable. And so “the Department began moving files to a viable hosting solution,” officials said.

For questions about the website or questions about IDEA, call 1-800-USALEARN.