Sponsor
Mark James Desaulnier
Representative · D-CA
Representative · D-CA
The bill would expand federal support, guidance, and data-driven accountability to make postsecondary education more accessible and employment-ready for students with disabilities, but it also imposes new costs, reporting burdens, and privacy risks that could strain smaller institutions and raise taxpayer and student privacy concerns.
Students with disabilities nationwide will gain expanded access to inclusive postsecondary supports (grants for universal-design training, accommodations, accessible instructional technology, and a national coordinating/technical assistance center).
Federal data collection and reporting will produce clearer, comparable metrics on enrollment, accommodations, and outcomes, enabling targeted policy, funding, and institutional improvements for serving students with disabilities.
Colleges and universities will receive centralized guidance, annotated IT standards, and technical assistance to adopt more consistent accessible educational technology and inclusive practices.
Colleges and universities will face substantial new administrative burdens and costs to collect, validate, evaluate, and report required program and student-outcome data.
Collecting longitudinal, student-level outcome and accommodation data raises meaningful student privacy risks (sensitive data, re-identification concerns) and could increase family anxiety if protections are insufficient or inconsistently applied.
The 25% institutional matching requirement for some grants may strain college budgets, forcing trade-offs or diverting resources from other student services.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes grants and national technical assistance centers and requires aggregate reporting to expand inclusive postsecondary education for students with disabilities.
Official title: To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve accessibility to, and completion of, postsecondary education for students, including students with disabilities, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 1, 2026 by Mark James Desaulnier · Last progress September 1, 2026
Creates competitive grant programs and national technical assistance centers to help colleges train faculty, staff, and administrators and to expand inclusive postsecondary education for students with disabilities, including students with intellectual disabilities. Requires institutions to report aggregate data on students registered with campus accessibility offices for inclusion in federal postsecondary data collections. Supports training on universal design and accommodations, accessible distance learning, transition practices from K–12, and career pathway supports; establishes a National Technical Assistance Center and a National Coordinating Center focused on inclusion for students with intellectual disabilities; and adds program-participation reporting conditions to federal student-aid eligibility rules.