Executive Order No. 14303 and Implications for Special Education, FERPA, and FOIA
Unlike the field of medicine, which is bound by scientific standards and rigorous data protocols, special education often operates with subjective interpretations and inconsistent standards.
Education and Health are the two most fundamental experiences shared by people around the world—and the two that most directly impact a person's future. Every individual is shaped by the quality of healthcare they receive and the educational opportunities they’re afforded.
But unlike the field of medicine, which is bound by scientific standards and rigorous data protocols, education—especially special education—often operates with subjective interpretations and inconsistent standards. This disconnect becomes especially concerning when educators and administrators make life-altering decisions for students with disabilities using undocumented, incomplete, or nontransparent data and/or make decisions based on specific agendas rather than on what a child needs.
Executive Order No. 14303 suggests that change may be on the horizon. Though the order doesn’t mention special education by name, its implications are enormous for public school systems, particularly special education programs.
Why?
Federal compliance obligations tied to funding—such as Title I and IDEA—extend the reach of these federal policies to state and local education agencies. In other words, even if state education agencies (SEA) and local education agencies (LEA) aren’t directly named in the Executive Order, they are expected to follow its standards when receiving and spending federal funds.
What Is Executive Order No. 14303?
Announced July 9, 2025, by U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Information Policy (OIP), and signed May 23, 2025, Executive Order No. 14303 requires all federal agencies to align policies and enforcement actions with a "Gold Standard" of scientific integrity.
In guidance released by his office, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Michael Kratsios said that "Gold Standard Science refers to science conducted in a manner that abides by nine key tenets":
Reproducible
Transparent
Communicative of Error and Uncertainty
Collaborative and Interdisciplinary
Skeptical of its Findings and Assumptions
Structured for Falsifiability of Hypotheses
Subject to Unbiased Peer Review
Accepting of Negative Results as Positive Outcomes
Without Conflicts of Interest
What is the Connection with Special Education?
Special education is supposed to be a data-driven system. Yet, too often its built on undocumented, unvalidated, or inaccessible information. Just yesterday a friend shared that her son's 504 Plan was removed because the school determined the high school student no longer needed a 504 Plan. Although the student had diagnosis for ADHD and Dyslexia, and other specific learning disabilities (SLD), going back years, the school said it saw nothing—and refused to provide access to the graded assessments, assignments, and classwork on which it alleged it based its opinions. In addition, it ignored its own educational testing that placed the high school student at a low elementary grade level for writing.
Executive Order 14303 has the potential to change that.
Application to State and Local Education Agencies
OSTP guidance (issued June 23, 2025) mandates that federal agencies update their grant selection and reporting practices to align with "gold standard" principles and explicitly addresses expectations about how agencies address "each of the tenets of Gold Standard Science, including how these tenets are reflected in the agency’s culture, funding opportunities, budget and other resource allocations, award selection and reporting, and other agency actions relevant to the conduct and management of scientific activities."
Although the Executive Order does not name “special education”—and applies to federal agencies—its implementation by U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) and Institute for Education Sciences (IES) will cascade to SEAs and LEAs via:
Funding conditions that demand reproducible, transparent data practices.
Updated federal program guidance that states must follow to remain eligible.
Shifts in oversight and monitoring priorities, especially around evidence-based interventions.
Federal grant regulations make compliance mandatory for recipients—including SEAs and LEAs. Thus, state and local education agencies must adhere to these updated scientific standards indirectly, via federally funded grants like Title I and IDEA.
More about the Order's Connection to Special Education
The Executive Order defines “scientific information” as "factual inputs, data, models, analyses, technical information, or scientific assessments related to such disciplines as the behavioral and social sciences, public health and medical sciences, life and earth sciences, engineering, physical sciences, or probability and statistics."
Special education research is considered both a behavioral and social science, depending on the research question—placing it squarely within the areas covered by the Executive Order.
The evaluation of students to determine special education needs is an act of research. It involves researching the child, observations, data collection, and interpretation—all of which are part of the scientific process.
If the federal government is required to uphold a “gold standard”, then the same principle should apply to state and local education agencies that receive federal funds. This doesn’t mean educators must act as scientific researchers—but it does mean that the tools, assessments, and decision-making processes they use must be grounded in evidence-based practice. Educators, school psychologists, and administrators would be expected to:
Maintain and disclose the source data they use in determining eligibility for IEPs or 504 plans
Use scientifically sound practices—not anecdotal impressions or unverified assumptions—to guide decisions
Document how learning disabilities, behavioral challenges, or other needs were assessed and how that documentation supports the educational services provided
Some may argue that this standard is unrealistic for educators. But the law already requires that IEPs and evaluations be based on valid and reliable measures (IDEA §300.304). Executive Order 14303 reinforces the expectation that public decisions—especially those impacting students with disabilities—must meet professional and scientific integrity standards.
What is the FERPA and FOIA Connection?
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) are two federal laws that govern access to educational records. FERPA protects the privacy of student records and guarantees parents the right to review their child’s education files, and additional protections are available under IDEA for students who have IEPs. FOIA is increasingly used as a tool for public accountability when government-funded programs affect civil rights.
Executive Order 14303 intersects with both laws in a powerful way. It demands documentation and retention of the data used in decision-making
School districts would be required to maintain the raw data—scores, observation notes, assessments, audio recordings, checklists, classwork, and communications—that led to an IEP or 504 decision.
Currently, many of these materials are never shared with parents, and some are not even "retained"—especially when it comes to emails. Schools too often claim they didn’t retain these emails because they weren’t considered part of the official “education record.” However, if those emails include decisions, observations, or conversations directly related to a student's eligibility or services, they likely meet the FERPA definition of an education record. In today’s digital age, informal communications often shape formal outcomes—and families have the right to access these discussions when they affect educational rights.
For example, in 2019, staff at Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) discussed refusing a student an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE)—a decision discussed in emails and made based on a staff member's feeling about the parent rather than on the need of the student. The email was withheld from the parent for years, and only obtained after FCPS unintentionally included the email in an in-person inspect and review that also included unredacted personally identifiable information (PII) for 20,000+ other students (and became the focus of investigations by OCR, SPPO, and VDOE).
It reinforces a parent’s right to access the data behind the decisions. This is critical. Parents cannot meaningfully participate in the IEP or 504 process—or challenge denials—if they are denied access to the information used to make those decisions.
Rulings have recognized that when documentation is missing, withheld, or vague, it creates a serious barrier to FAPE. If a school cannot show what it relied on, then it cannot prove it made a legally compliant decision—and without that transparency, parents are left unable to challenge the denial of services or the appropriateness of a placement if they don’t know what data the team relied on—or if there’s no record at all.
Final Words
Executive Order 14303 affirms that scientific integrity, data transparency, and accountability apply just as much to education as they do to public health. And it opens the door for parents to demand better—not just for their child, but for every student served by the public school system.
Imagine being told your child doesn’t qualify for services—but when you ask for the data used in that decision, the school never produces it. How can parents advocate for their children without that information?
Whether parents are navigating an IEP, requesting a 504 plan, or challenging an eligibility denial, they have the right to access the full data used to make decisions about their children—and to expect that data to meet the highest standards of transparency and scientific integrity. Executive Order 14303 affirms that data should not just exist—it should be reproducible, accurate, and accessible.