- Utah has joined 16 other states in a lawsuit against Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
- The lawsuit was filed because the Biden administration added gender dysphoria to the definition of disability.
- Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said he will fight to protect the needs of kids with disabilities.
Families of children with disabilities are worried about a lawsuit Utah has joined with 16 other states that could change or strike down Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
But Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said he will work to protect Section 504 benefits for children and families.
“I hear you, parents. Utah parents shouldn’t have to worry if their children are receiving the services they need,” Brown said in a statement released Friday.
Utah joined the case under former Attorney General Sean Reyes after changes were made to the law under President Joe Biden.
In May 2024, the Biden administration expanded the definition of disability under Section 504 to include gender dysphoria saying it “may be considered a physical or mental impairment.”
Following that change, in September 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration, saying it was “abusing executive action.” Since then 16 states have joined Texas in the suit which claims that Section 504 is unconstitutional.
Section 504 helps provide accommodations and aid for kids in school, and also provides assistance for people with disabilities in other aspects of life such as in hospitals and doctors offices.
Herriman resident Jessica Forbes has experienced the accommodation benefits from Section 504 for about four years with her 12-year-old daughter, Clara.
Clara was born with a chromosome deletion that caused some physical disabilities, specifically with the musculature in her legs. Clara has also been diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety. Her 504 Plan accommodations include getting more travel time between classes, additional breaks and extra instruction. Through Section 504, Clara is also able to work with a psychiatrist.
“Prior to having 504 accommodations for her in school, we saw lots of meltdowns and being distracted and having a hard time following the things that she was supposed to do, which actually led to her missing a lot of school, which then makes things harder,” Forbes said.
To put these accommodations in place for Clara, the family had to get certain testing done as well as a neuro-psych evaluation. Everyone then worked with the school to decide what was reasonable or what would make the most sense to help Clara.
Forbes said that she believes this lawsuit would dissolve the protections that in place for her daughter.
“It puts her back into a position of feeling frustrated and not having the small adjustments that make it so that she can continue to be in an environment with the rest of her schoolmates,” Forbes said. “It potentially makes it harder for all special needs kids to remain in mainstream classroom.”
Forbes said she has seen others who have kids with disabilities who are fired up over the lawsuit and are panicked about what will happen if Section 504 goes away.
Utah’s involvement in the lawsuit
As the potential change has received more attention, Utah’s attorney general released a statement clarifying that he supports Section 504 accommodations.
“I am committed to protecting Section 504, which helps so many children in the state. Utah joined the lawsuit before I took office to challenge an unlawful regulation from the Biden Administration, adding gender dysphoria as a covered disability under Section 504,” said Brown.
The statement confirmed that the case is paused, and Brown believes there is not a risk that Section 504 will be dissolved. Brown’s statement also said he believes that the Department of Justice will soon remove the changes made to Section 504 by the Biden administration.
This could make the lawsuit moot.
Utah joined the lawsuit because of the concerns about the impact the 2024 changes would have on state programs, per the statement.
“Failure to comply with the Biden DHHS’s new regulations and policy preferences would have put the state at risk of losing all federal funding, not just disability related federal funds. Utah could not afford to let this policy go unchallenged,” according the statement.
On Friday, Brown released another statement, saying, “We anticipate that our challenge to a Biden-era regulatory change will be resolved imminently. If it is not resolved quickly, we are looking at all of our legal options, including amending the lawsuit to protect children. I will continue to strongly defend and protect Section 504 benefits and accommodations for Utah children.”
What does Section 504 do?
“Section 504 forbids organizations and employers from excluding or denying individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to receive program benefits and services. It defines the rights of individuals with disabilities to participate in, and have access to, program benefits and services,” according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
504 plans are used regularly across the country to set up specialized programs and supports to help students with special needs succeed and ensures that they will not be discriminated against in classes, per Forbes. These 504 plans can help people with varying needs, including visual impairment, diabetes, heart disease, epilepsy, depression and ADHD.
It also requires certain accommodations for those with disabilities receiving medical care, such as doctors providing clear instructions and sign language interpreters and captions being provided for those with hearing impairments, according to the Utah Parent Center.
Under Section 504, hospitals cannot deny care due to disability and websites from schools and hospitals also must be accessible for blind and low-vision users.
Forbes said she knows people whose 504 plans provide a variety of accommodations, such as kids with Type 1 diabetes getting regular access to a nurse, temporary protections for an injury, environmental modifications, ASL interpreters and access to Braille materials. She has also seen accommodations for kids with anxiety and ADHD, like giving them extra time to take tests.
She added that 504 plans help kids, including Clara, to succeed.
“She’s a great kid,” Forbes said. “She’s so special. And I want her to continue to have all of these options before her, and I don’t want her limited. And I think this is something that keeps her in the game.”
What does the lawsuit say?
According to the publication Forbes, Paxton said the lawsuit was filed because “HHS has no authority to unilaterally rewrite statutory definitions and classify ‘gender dysphoria’ as a disability.”
Thirty pages of the lawsuit are spent disagreeing with the addition of gender dysphoria to Section 504. The lawsuit argues that the new definition conflicts with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
However, the lawsuit doesn’t just argue for getting rid of the gender dysphoria language, but to get rid of the entirety of Section 504.
It states that Section 504 is “coercive, untethered to the federal interest in disability and unfairly retroactive,” adding that because of this it is unconstitutional.
“I think just repealing something like this, overturning and entirely removing the protections, is not the way to support families,” Jessica Forbes said.
Besides Texas and Utah, the other states on the lawsuit are Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.