At Chain of Lakes Elementary School in Winter Haven, Florida, Josette Smith's 9-year-old son, Ethan, gets to do what he loves most: crafts, math, and science.
asserted
he → get → crafts
That is, when he isn't being pulled out of class.
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he → pull → class
Ethan has autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
asserted
Ethan → have → autism
He was diagnosed with autism in kindergarten after displaying behavior that concerned his relatives: He paced, flapped his arms, and became consumed with highly specific interests, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and dachshunds.
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He → diagnose → Jr.
In a meeting with school administrators and the district to develop his individualized education program, a legal agreement that outlines the support Ethan requires, the team agreed he required a trained paraprofessional to help him regulate his emotions and remain in class, according to complaints Smith filed against the school.
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Smith → develop → school
However, the complaints alleged, administrators were unwilling to provide the dedicated aide.
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administrators → allege → aide
Instead of implementing the supports her son needed, his school repeatedly removed him from instruction, suspended him, and even called police on him when he was in third grade, Smith wrote.
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Smith → implement → grade
Smith, a seventh grade science teacher, said she first filed complaints with the school district and the state with these allegations.
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she → say → allegations
But when problems persisted, she turned to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, the federal agency tasked with resolving complaints like hers.
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she → persist → hers
Smith's federal complaint included the same account and alleged that the school discriminated against her son because of his disability and race, including deploying pressure tactics to push her Black son out of the public school.
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school → include → school
In May, the office said it would investigate several of her allegations.
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it → say → allegations
For families who believe their child's rights were violated based on race, disability, or gender in school, the White House cut its offices and weakened its ability to follow up with cases, as well as slashed funding to research on disparities that people of color face in getting diagnosed and attaining resources for disabilities.
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people → believe → disabilities
But theAbout 1 in 31 U.S. kids by age 8 had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as of 2022.
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1 → diagnose → 2022
Although previous research on disparities in childhood autism diagnoses has had mixed results, a recent study from the State University of New York at Albany's Institute for Social and Health Equity found that race, gender, and socioeconomic gaps persist.
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gaps → have → Equity
Among fourth graders from 2003 to 2022, students of color, girls, low-income students, and multilingual learners were less likely than peers to be identified with autism in school, even as diagnoses rose among children from historically marginalized groups, the study found.
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study → identify → groups
A large forthcoming study by the same researchers found the biggest gaps among overlapping identities.
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study → find → identities
Black and Hispanic girls were especially unlikely to be identified.
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girls → identify → ?
All this has happened as President Donald Trump's second administration has put autism in the spotlight.
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administration → happen → spotlight
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in April 2025 called autism a "tragedy" that "destroys families," and he's lent credence to ungrounded claims of autism's causes, including unfounded links to childhood vaccines and Tylenol during pregnancy.
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he → call → pregnancy
He has presented it as a"This administration is taking us backwards," said Camille Proctor, founder and executive director of The Color of Autism Foundation.
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Proctor → present → Foundation
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email that Kennedy's statements last spring "emphasized the need for increased research into environmental factors contributing to the rise in autism diagnoses, not to stigmatize individuals with autism or their families."
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statements → say → autism
She added that the agency changes are "about making federal support systems work better for children and families."
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systems → add → children
White House spokesperson Kush Desai did not respond to a request for comment.
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Desai → respond → comment
Neither did the press office for the Department of Education.
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office → do → Education
The cuts to agencies and research have affected parts of the federal government focused on students with disabilities.
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cuts → affect → disabilities
In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education and closed seven of its Office for Civil Rights' 12 regional offices.
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Trump → sign → offices
This June, his administration largely shifted special-education oversight to HHS and the Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice.
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administration → shift → Justice
"On paper, it's a reorganization," said Nancy Potter, a former supervising attorney at the Office for Civil Rights who now runs her own education law firm.
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who → say → firm
In practice, she said, it could leave families whose complaints involve overlapping harms — such as race and disability discrimination — caught between agencies built for different jobs.
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complaints → say → jobs
"The hardest thing to prove in these cases is now the thing with no obvious home."
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thing → prove → home
In April, a year after the order, a Senate committee report from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) concluded that the Office for Civil Rights had reached a 12-year-low in resolutions to discrimination complaints and had a backlog of nearly 12,000 civil rights cases.
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Office → conclude → cases
A recent Washington Post investigation found that the Trump administration "indefinitely froze" many of these cases.
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administration → find → cases
On top of those cuts, the White House vowed to stop "equity" investigations in areas such as school discipline despite research showing that nonwhite and low-income kids disproportionately face barriers to being identified with autism and attaining resources for the condition and other neurodevelopmental diagnoses.
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kids → vow → condition
It also decimated the Institute of Education Sciences, the Department of Education's research arm, canceling roughly $900 million in funding for research, including long-standing data collection in schools.
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It → decimate → schools
The administration further proposed ending data collection on racial disparities in school discipline.
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administration → propose → discipline
The National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation have purged projects referencing terms including "race" and "gender," gutting research focused on diversity, equity, or inclusion.
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Institutes → purge → diversity
"If we're cutting any data collection that helps us understand the problem, we're not going to fix it," said Paul Morgan, director of the Institute for Social and Health Equity at SUNY-Albany, who led the studies on disparities in autism diagnoses.
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who → cut → diagnoses
"All we're doing right now is making the situation worse."
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situation → do → ?
The nation's influential federal autism panel also appears to lack prominent scientists and Black members and has fewer autistic self-advocates than before, said Proctor of The Color of Autism Foundation, who served on the panel before the Trump administration took over.
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administration → appear → panel
The panel has also been criticized for including vaccine opponents.
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panel → criticize → opponents
…and 23 more, not listed.
