A $10.5 million federal grant that trained California educators to better support children with disabilities has been abruptly canceled — three years before its funding was set to expire — because it conflicted with “the priorities of the current administration,” officials say.
The Partnerships for Effective Practices in Transition and Inclusion, or PEPTI Project, had been funded since 2023 through a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The money supported statewide training for child care practitioners and teachers to help children with disabilities transition into preschool and succeed in the classroom. The effort was facilitated by the Napa County Office of Education on behalf of the California Department of Education.
Now, after training more than a hundred educators across the state, the program is being shut down.
“This cancellation puts all this work in jeopardy and cuts short planned future impacts,” said Seana Wagner, spokesperson for the Napa County Office of Education.
In September, the California Department of Education received notice that the federal government was ending the PEPTI Project. The state appealed the decision, and education groups including the California School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators sent letters of support. But the U.S. Department of Education denied the appeal.
According to a report prepared for that appeal, much of the state’s training infrastructure for early childhood special education will now disappear. The Napa County Office of Education anticipates some of the eight staff members employed on the project will lose their jobs.
Of the total $10.5 million grant, California had already received $6.5 million before the cancellation, resulting in a $4 million loss.
“It’s very unfortunate. (This was) excellent work all around the state,” Napa County Superintendent of Schools Joshua Schultz said at a board of education meeting last week. “It was canceled explicitly because there was language addressing our work around DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in the application, which of course was a priority of the funding at the time we applied over three years ago.”
The Press Democrat reached out to the U.S. Department of Education for comment, but the agency’s press team and David Cantrell, deputy director of the Office of Special Education Programs, are on furlough due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
The cancellation comes amid sweeping layoffs at the Department of Education under the Trump administration — part of mass firings across the federal government that have reduced the agency’s workforce to less than half its size before President Donald Trump took office. According to multiple reports, the latest layoffs included dozens of employees in the office that oversees special education, leaving only a handful of top officials.
The PEPTI Project was funded through a State Personnel Development Grant, a competitive program within the Office of Special Education Programs that helps states improve training for early childhood educators under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Nearly 40 states currently receive similar grants. Until this year, California’s grant — administered through the Napa County Office of Education — had been renewed continuously for more than 25 years.
The project focused on two key goals: helping families of children with disabilities navigate the transition to preschool, and coaching teachers on effective classroom practices. County offices of education in Humboldt, Mendocino, Imperial and Napa, along with several school districts, participated in the coaching program. With the cancellation, each site will now need to build and fund its own system to replace PEPTI’s centralized training.
A report by PEPTI staff found that children in classrooms using the program made measurable gains in language, communication and social skills. Teachers reported improved understanding of what children with disabilities were capable of and greater collaboration between general and special education staff.
The project also supported a state workgroup dedicated to improving early childhood programs for children with disabilities.
California Department of Education spokesperson Michelle Hatfield said the department is assessing the impact of the loss.
“Unfortunately, young children with disabilities and the educators who serve them are being punished by this action,” Schultz said in a statement to The Press Democrat.