Last month, ProPublica reported that the Department of Education canceled grants to agencies that serve students who are deaf and blind. The cuts affected programs in Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as in five states that are part of a New England consortium.
Following public outcry, ProPublica learned, the Department of Education has changed course. Instead of cutting funding for those programs, it will reroute grants to a separate organization, the National Center on Deafblindness, that will provide funding to these students.
The Trump administration targeted the programs in its attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion; a department spokesperson had cited concerns about “divisive concepts” and “fairness” in explaining the decision to withhold the funding.
The organizations were supposed to be funded through September 2028; the rerouted grants are now committed only for another year.
“It is still a disruption to families,’’ Lisa McConachie of the Oregon DeafBlind Project said. “It creates this mistrust, that you are gone and back and gone and back.”
