72 policy documents outlining rights of students with disabilities rescinded by Dept. of Ed.

The Education Department has rescinded 72 policy documents that outline the rights of students with disabilities as part of the Trump administration's effort to eliminate regulations it deems superfluous.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services wrote in a newsletter Friday that it had "a total of 72 guidance documents that have been rescinded due to being outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective - 63 from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and 9 from the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)." The documents, which fleshed out students' rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Rehabilitation Act, were rescinded Oct. 2.

That sounds like a lot. But it appears that many of the guidance documents were targeted because they're just very old. Fifty of the guidance documents marked for elimination predate the most recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was passed in November 2004. For example, one memo, which does not have a link available, is a 35-year-old letter to state chiefs about data collection for fiscal year 1983.