Kamala Harris: Candidate Impact on the Neurodiverse Community

About Kamala Harris

We acknowledge and respect that Madam Vice President Harris has a daughter with Autism and Epilepsy. Being a parent to a special needs child is no easy feat, given that she has worked a job in which she is currently one heartbeat away from becoming President. However, Vice President Harris has, at best, a moderate record on the issues of Autism and mental health.

Congressional Record on Autism

While in Congress, (then) Senator Harris’ record on legislation pertaining to the autism community is limited:

•  ✅ Vice President Harris voted in favor of the 2019 Autism CARES (Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education and Support) Act, which passed the Senate with unanimous consent on September 19, 2019.

Vice Presidential Record on Autism

Recently, Vice President Harris has shown support for the IDEA Full Funding Act. However, Americans for Autism Advocacy opposes passage of the IDEA Full Funding Act. AFAA believes the IDEA Full Funding Act is bad for these reasons:

• ❌ The IDEA Full Funding Act lacks bipartisan support in Congress and is more of a hyper-partisan messaging bill meant to benefit the National Education Association (NEA) and its allies. 
• ❌ The IDEA Full Funding Act creates runaway federal spending without addressing additional accountability measures. 
  • Only 12 states fully met federal special education standards under the IDEA Act in 2024. This should be alarming to all Americans.   
• ❌ The IDEA Full Funding Act will do nothing to address the root causes of states failing to meet federal special education standards.  

AFAA believes in reforming how federal special education funding is awarded by:

• ✅ Moving the current non-competitive funding system to a merit-based system with incentives for meeting standards. 
• ✅ States should face the threat of losing federal special education funding if they are placed in federal monitoring for failing to meet either Part B or Part C of their IDEA Act determination letter. 
• ✅ States can earn more funding if they do the following:
  • Increase classroom access to applied behavior analysis (ABA) technicians. 
  • Ending abhorrent practices such as seclusion and restraint in the classroom. 
  • Moving their IDEA Act determination letter status from needs assistance to meeting standards for more than two (2) consecutive years. 
  • Fully meeting  IDEA Act determination letter status for both parts B and C for more than two consecutive years.  

We believe states should also lose funding if a school district is sued and successfully proven in the court of law for failing to meet the federal basic guarantee on special education.  

The IDEA Full Funding Act

Earlier in her career, while running for President during the 2020 election cycle, Madam, Vice President Harris unveiled a plan to help Americans with disabilities. Harris’s plan called for the following:

• Passage of the  IDEA Full Funding Act.
• Passage of the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act. 
  • This would be a state grant program that would award states funds for improving:
    • Disability unemployment. 
    • Mandating a $15 an hour minimum wage for disabled employees. 
• Increase in U.S. Department of Education funding for vocational rehabilitation.  
• Increase mandates for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Department of Transportation by requiring full disability access.  

While the efforts of the Madam Vice President are appreciated, this legislation package would have faced intense scrutiny in Congress for the following reasons:

• The Congressional Budget Office would have given negative scores relating to the IDEA Full Funding Act and the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act.
• Congress and the Public would not know the full details of increased mandates for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Department of Transportation on disability access standards.  
• How the U.S. Department of Education would allocate funding for vocational rehabilitation without additional details.

Key Takeaways
Whether or not Madam Vice President is elected as President in November, she can show support for the Autism Community in her home state of California. The Golden State is not at the top of the list when it comes to helping neurodiverse individuals and their families. 

• The Golden State is currently in federal monitoring for failing to meet IDEA Act Part C Standards.  
• California had to recently settle a lawsuit over discrimination practices towards students with disabilities.  
• The administration of Governor Gavin Newsom (D-California) had to settle a $2 billion dollar lawsuit relating to failing to meet special education rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.