The Brief

Dr. Salvador Plasencia, a Santa Monica doctor, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months years in federal prison for his role in the overdose death of Friends actor Matthew Perry.

He was also ordered to pay a $5,600 fine and immediately placed in federal custody.

Perry died Oct. 28, 2023, in his Los Angeles home. The L.A. County medical examiner determined the cause was “acute effects of ketamine.” Plasencia pleaded guilty to four felony charges in July for distributing the drug.

“Rather than do what was best for Mr. Perry – someone who had struggled with addiction for most of his life – [Plasencia] sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Indeed, the day [Plasencia] met Perry he made his profit motive known, telling a co-conspirator: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’ and ‘let’s find out.’”

Perry's mother and stepfather, Suzanne and Keith Morrison, called Plasencia among the "most culpable" of all.

"But this doctor conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly, sneaked through the night to meet his victim in secret," the two wrote in a joint victim impact statement. "For what, a few thousand dollars? So he could feed on the vulnerability of our son."

How was Plasencia involved?

Plasencia admitted to selling Perry four vials of liquid ketamine and an open box of ketamine lozenges. Plasencia also admitted to traveling to Perry’s residence, injecting him with the drug and leaving at least one vial with Perry’s personal assistant.

Plasencia will be required to make restitution to Perry’s estate, according to his plea agreement.

His lawyers, Karen L. Goldstein and Debra S. White, said in a statement that Plasencia is not a villain.

"He is someone who made serious mistakes in his treatment decisions involving the off-label use of ketamine - a drug commonly used for depression that does not have uniform standards," the statement said. "The mistakes he made over the 13 days during which he treated Mr. Perry will stay with him forever."

Who else is involved?

He didn’t act alone, according to prosecutors. Plasencia is among five other people charged in Perry’s death, including Dr. Mark Chavez, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.

Jasveen Sangha, a North Hollywood drug dealer known as “Ketamine Queen,” pleaded guilty in September to supplying the Friends actor with the drugs. Sangha faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in federal prison. Her sentencing is set for Feb. 25. Chavez is scheduled for sentencing later this month.

The other two people involved, including Perry’s personal assistant, are scheduled for sentencing early next year.

California is fighting back after President Donald Trump’s administration instigated homeless housing cuts that local service providers said would be "devastating."

Two recently filed lawsuits accuse the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of illegally going over Congress’ head to make massive changes to the way federal homelessness funds are distributed.

“HUD’s new grant rules would effectively defund permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programs across the nation, eliminating proven tools that help residents exit homelessness sustainably,” Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said in a statement. “This is another instance of the Trump administration prioritizing its political agenda above the needs of our most vulnerable community members.”

Santa Clara County and San Francisco sued the Trump administration this week, in conjunction with the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A separate lawsuit was filed last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration and a handful of other states. It marked the 47th time California sued the Trump administration in 44 weeks.

Now, homeless service providers are waiting anxiously to see how the litigation plays out and wondering if the impending legal battle will further delay the money they desperately need.

“It’s just the matter of how long it’s going to take that concerns me,” said Robert Ratner, director of Santa Cruz County’s Housing for Health, which coordinates the county’s homelessness response. “Because while we’re waiting for these issues to get resolved, we have programs that are going to run out of money to support people.”

The Department of Housing and Urban Development did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement last month, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the changes are aimed at “stopping the Biden-era slush fund that fueled the homelessness crisis, shut out faith-based providers simply because of their values, and incentivized never-ending government dependency.”

At issue are changes the Trump administration made to its funding policy last month. Jurisdictions applying for a piece of about $4 billion in federal homelessness funds now can’t spend more than 30% of that money on permanent housing — a significant decrease. Los Angeles County, for example, currently spends more than 80% on permanent housing. Instead, the federal government wants localities to prioritize emergency shelter and temporary housing programs that require participants to be sober or participate in treatment.

While shelters offer a temporary respite from the streets, permanent housing can end someone’s homelessness. For years, the federal government has prioritized funding permanent housing using the “housing first” method — a strategy that moves people into housing as quickly as possible, without requiring them to first get sober or agree to addiction treatment. Veering away from both of those principles marks a major policy shift.

Last year, California communities won more than $683 million in federal homelessness funds through what is called the Continuum of Care program. About 90% of that went to permanent housing projects, which currently house tens of thousands of Californians, according to Newsom. The new rule threatens to put those people back out onto the street, he said in a news release.

The new policy also prohibits the use of federal funds for diversity and inclusion efforts, support of transgender clients, and use of “harm reduction” strategies that seek to reduce overdose deaths by helping people in active addiction use drugs more safely. And it gives preference for projects in cities, counties and states that ban homeless encampments.

Both lawsuits allege that the Trump administration’s funding changes violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution by defying the rules Congress set out for distributing the funds. Congress authorized a two-year grant cycle in 2024, meaning local jurisdictions wouldn’t have to reapply for funds in 2025. The Trump administration flouted that decision when it suddenly forced jurisdictions to reapply, the lawsuits allege.

The lawsuits also claim the administration didn’t go through proper protocol before enacting the changes to its funding strategy, which would have included giving cities and counties more time to comply with the new rules, and allowing stakeholders to comment on the changes.

In Santa Cruz County, Ratner is of two minds about the lawsuits. On one hand, he believes the abrupt way the Trump administration rolled out the funding changes was “very inappropriate.” But he worries a lengthy court battle could tie up funds his county needs to pay people’s rents.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness sued the Trump administration over similar allegations tied to a smaller, $75 million pot of homelessness funding in September. A judge sided with the Alliance, and temporarily barred the federal government from distributing those funds. But now that money is frozen, unable to help unhoused residents as the case moves forward.

Ratner worries that could happen again in this case. Santa Cruz County is set to start hitting serious financial problems as soon as February, Ratner said. That’s when a $1.2 million supportive housing grant, which currently houses about 50 people in different apartments around the county, is set to expire.

The Trump administration doesn’t expect to start awarding Continuum of Care money until May. It’s unclear how the lawsuits will affect that timeline.

In the meantime, Ratner and other homeless service providers are trying to remain optimistic.

“At this point, we don’t know how long the litigation process will take, but we’re hopeful it leads to a more workable path forward,” Sacramento Steps Forward CEO Lisa Bates said in a statement. “Of course, any delay in federal funding would have real impacts on communities across the country, including ours, to operate shelters, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, and essential system coordination.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Michael and Susan Dell will donate $6.25 billion to fund investment accounts for 25 million U.S. children, under a plan unveiled Tuesday. The money from their charitable funds would help to seed "Trump Accounts" ushered into law in July.

The gift would put $250 into each eligible child's account, which is meant to grow over time through investments in low-cost stock funds that track market indexes.

"The idea is to give millions of children a head start on saving for the future," Michael Dell told NPR. "And we know that when children have accounts like this, even with modest sums, they have better outcomes in life."

Michael Dell is the CEO of Dell Technologies.

Here's a brief guide to the accounts, and the Dells' plan:

Who would receive the Dells' gift?

To receive the Dell gift, children need to have Social Security numbers and be age 10 or under and born before Jan. 1, 2025.

Dell told NPR they're trying to reach kids who need the money the most, which is why the gift targets recipients who live in ZIP codes where the median income is less than $150,000.

The Dells say the gift will reach nearly 80% of children in the eligible age group, across 75% of ZIP codes in the U.S.

Parents need to create "Trump Accounts" to receive the gift

As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law this past summer, every American baby born from this year through 2028 is in line to automatically receive a Trump Account funded with $1,000 from the U.S. Treasury.

All kids under 18 who have a Social Security number can have one of the accounts — but they don't get that initial $1,000.

The Dell gifts are meant to help kids who are too old to receive that Treasury payment.

"What we're doing with this gift is targeting kids that are 10 and under that aren't part of the federal program," Dell said.

Susan Dell encouraged parents to "mark their calendars for July 4, 2026, which is when they could claim the accounts for their children."

How Trump Accounts work

Money in Trump Accounts would grow over time, using contributions to invest in low-cost stock funds that track market indexes. When the children turn 18, they can either convert the money into a retirement account or use the money for education, buying a home, or starting a business.

Parents and others can contribute up to $5,000 annually until the year the child turns 18.

Personal finance experts say the Trump Accounts are sort of a hybrid of existing plans. And the potential benefits would vary widely depending on how much a family can contribute.

According to the White House, maximum contributions to a Trump Account could make it worth nearly $1.1 million by the time a beneficiary is 28 years old. If no additional contributions are made, it could be worth far less: $18,100.

Essential details about how the Trump Accounts will be administered remain unknown. A recent update from Charles Schwab stated, "At this time, it isn't clear who will open the account or where it will be held."

The investment bank recommends families consult a tax or financial adviser if they're interested in the plan.
Copyright 2025 NPR

The Los Angeles Unified School District is reporting a 4% drop in student enrollment compared with last year, a trend the district says is in part due to immigration raids that have terrorized LA communities.

For the 2025–26 school year, LAUSD enrolled 392,654 students, down from 409,108 the previous year, the district said. The numbers are nearly 2% below projections.

On top of the overall decrease, the district saw a “significant” decline in newcomer students who were born outside the United States.

“These declines reflect a climate of fear and instability created by ongoing immigration crackdowns, which disrupt family stability, housing, and mobility,” said LA schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho in a statement.

“When families are afraid to be seen, or when they cannot afford to remain in their communities, they are less likely to enroll, reenroll, or stay in public schools,” he added.

Carvalho said immigration fears are “exacerbating” other factors that were already contributing to statewide enrollment declines, including falling birth rates and rising housing costs.

LAUSD released numbers this week reflecting its annual count of actively enrolled students. The practice, known as “Norm Day,” takes place on the fifth or sixth Friday of the school year. This year, Norm Day fell on Friday, Sept. 19. The district then realigns its teacher workforce based on current student enrollment.

As far as newcomer students — those enrolled for three years or fewer in any U.S. school — the district’s 2023-24 end-of-year data show that 21,997 were enrolled in LAUSD. That number made up 5.2% of the student population.

In 2024-25, newcomer enrollment declined to 19,110 students, the district said. The downward trend continued in 2025–26, with recent data showing an additional decline of 1,768 students, bringing enrollment to 17,342 and reducing newcomers to 4.4% of the student population, according to LAUSD.

“While Newcomers have historically been a vibrant and growing part of our school communities, their enrollment has declined significantly over the past three years, with year-over-year decreases that mirror the uncertainty many families are living through,” Carvalho said.

In September, activists with the social justice group Centro CSO urged LAUSD to place a moratorium on potential staff displacements tied to declining student enrollment.

The Boyle Heights-based group said it was unfair for schools to make staffing decisions at a time when immigration raids have stoked fears across LA neighborhoods.

“ICE has had a chilling effect on our school communities and families, especially those with undocumented members [who] are understandably afraid to send their children to school, fearing detention, separation, or deportation,” the organization wrote in a letter addressed to LAUSD board members.

The district has not yet made it clear whether there will be any staffing changes in Eastside schools resulting from Norm Day.

Fifty years ago, just after Thanksgiving of 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, the landmark law that created special education as it exists today, and guaranteed all children with disabilities the right to a "free appropriate public education."

Yet, "rather than celebrating progress, we face a crisis," warned a recent letter to Congress, signed by hundreds of disability, civil rights and education groups.

That crisis, according to the letter, is "the dismantling of the very infrastructure Congress created to ensure children with disabilities could reach their full potential."

The Trump administration has fired, or tried to fire, many of the federal staff at the U.S. Department of Education who manage and enforce federal disability law, though Education Secretary Linda McMahon has said federal funding for special education is not at risk.

In a November op-ed in USA Today, McMahon wrote that "returning education to the states does not mean the end of federal support for education. It simply means the end of a centralized bureaucracy micromanaging what should be a state-led responsibility."

But, in interviews with 40 parents, educators, disability-rights advocates, subject matter experts and Education Department staffers, NPR heard a growing fear: that the Trump administration's efforts to cut federal staff and oversight of special education could return the U.S. to a time, before 1975, when some schools denied access or services to children with disabilities.

What special education means to one mom and her daughter

Maggie Heilman's 14-year-old daughter, Brooklynn, has never known a world without the 50-year-old law later renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Maggie Heilman and her daughter Brooklynn play checkers. Brooklynn loves games, painting her nails and listening to Taylor Swift.

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The family lives in a Kansas City suburb. Brooklynn, who has Down syndrome, loves hanging out with her sisters, playing basketball and listening to music "all day, and on the bus," Brooklyn says.

"And she dances all day," her mom adds.

"In circles," Brooklyn says. "Over and over."

The teen is now in eighth grade, has her own special education plan, thanks to IDEA, and loves her middle school. But sixth grade was difficult.

"I was having a hard time," Brooklynn says.

In October 2023, Heilman says, she got a call from Brooklynn's school that her daughter had become agitated after refusing a request to come to the classroom's reading table. Eventually, Heilman says, Brooklynn was secluded for 20 minutes in a padded room the size of a closet.

"That 20 minutes changed the trajectory of our lives," Heilman recalls. "I had a child who loved to sing and dance and communicate and hug, and, after that moment, she stopped talking."

Seclusion in school, as a practice, is allowed in many states — if students pose an immediate danger to themselves or others. However, the practice can also be traumatic.

Heilman says she told school staff she thought Brooklynn's seclusion was extreme. Through the winter, she said, the school turned to informal seclusion, separating Brooklynn in other physical spaces or school offices.

Brooklynn, center, loves playing Uno with her mom and sisters.

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As a result, Heilman says, Brooklynn repeatedly missed some of her traditional classes. "And we just saw our daughter's health — physically, mentally, emotionally — deteriorate."

Finally, Heilman asked that Brooklynn be transferred to a different middle school, where staff assured her they don't seclude students. Brooklynn's situation improved dramatically, but, worried for the students who came after Brooklynn, Heilman still requested a state-level investigation into her daughter's previous seclusion. The state did not find the district at fault.     

Heilman also filed a complaint with the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), arguing that Brooklynn had been secluded unnecessarily and that, as a result, she was denied her right to a free, appropriate public education.

That complaint kickstarted a new ordeal for Heilman and her family.

Counting on a federal system as it's being dismantled

OCR is the fail-safe for families who believe their child's civil rights are being violated at school because of their disability. A family can submit a discrimination complaint, and one of OCR's attorneys will review it and, if justified, open an investigation — no need to hire an expensive lawyer or advocate.

OCR has investigated a Texas district for restraining students; a Maryland district for how it handled the bullying of a disabled student; and an Arizona district for forcing students with disabilities to end their school day earlier than general education students.

Department records show OCR began investigating Heilman's complaint in October 2024.

But Heilman says her assigned attorney was removed around the same time the Trump administration began a broad reduction-in-force. According to emails Heilman shared with NPR, her case was then assigned to a different attorney.

Heilman says she has heard nothing about the investigation since June, when this second OCR attorney assured her, in an email, that Brooklynn's case is "currently still in investigation."

Several OCR attorneys spoke with NPR on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the Trump administration. Two of them said Heilman's second attorney worked in an OCR office that was gutted in October, in a second round of layoffs. Those fired workers have since been reinstated, but Heilman says she has heard nothing about her complaint.

Of the administration's decision to cut many attorneys who protect students' civil rights, Heilman says, "it's telling families with children like Brooklynn that their hurt doesn't matter."

Before special education, children with disabilities were "invisible"

Before 1975, children with disabilities were commonly denied access to public school classrooms.

"They were invisible," says Ed Martin, who helped write the landmark 1975 law. "They had been kept at home. Our goal was to end that."  

Ed Martin began his career as a young professor of speech therapy at the University of Alabama. He was invited to Washington, D.C., in the 1960s to work on disability issues.

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In 1970, U.S. public schools educated just 1 in 5 children with a disability, according to the Department of Education, and excluded nearly 1.8 million children.

Martin, now 94, says he organized hearings for parents to share their stories with lawmakers.

"There was one mother who told us a story about the school bus stopping at the foot of her driveway," Martin recalls, "and her daughter standing in the window crying, saying, 'Why can't I go with the other kids?'"

When Ford signed the new law, it cemented a bold idea: that students with disabilities have a right to an individualized, public education and that the U.S. government would help pay for it.

Margaret Spellings ran the Education Department under Republican President George W. Bush, and says special education isn't just about doing what the law requires — it's a public good.

"We're talking about a lot of kids who have abilities and disabilities that can be remediated, that can make them productive citizens," Spellings says, "and that is in our interest as a nation to have these students meet their full potential."

In fiscal year 2024, the law provided nearly $15 billion to help school districts pay for specialized classroom instruction and speech and physical therapy, among other services.  

Including its early intervention programs for infants and toddlers, IDEA helps more than 8 million children with disabilities in the U.S.

To manage and enforce not just IDEA but a cluster of federal disability laws, Congress placed a pair of offices inside the Department of Education. The Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), which includes the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), oversees special education under IDEA, providing guidance to states and directly to families. The other key office is OCR, the Office for Civil Rights. It does not enforce IDEA but investigates allegations of disability discrimination, which often overlap with family complaints that allege IDEA violations.

Since these offices were created, support for their mission — to help families, districts and states in their efforts to protect and educate children with disabilities — has transcended politics. Spellings says, "We have long had, for the last 50 years — until this year — huge bipartisan support and fealty to the law."

Until this year.

Devastating special education cuts 

According to court records, the Trump administration fired 121 of 135 employees at OSERS during the recent government shutdown.

"We can't, in our wildest imagination, understand how the secretary can fulfill her obligation under the law with so few staff," said Denise Marshall, head of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA).

Since those cuts, the 121 staffers have been reinstated as part of the deal to end the shutdown, though the administration could lay them off again after Jan. 30.

When NPR asked the Education Department if it planned to retain these staff beyond that date, the press office replied with a statement: "The Department has brought back staff that were impacted by the Schumer Shutdown. The Department will follow all applicable laws."

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon during a television interview outside the White House. In an op-ed published in USA Today, McMahon wrote, "protecting students' civil rights is work that will never go away."

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"This is a part of the process of making a smaller federal footprint and turning responsibilities over to states," says Jonathan Butcher, acting director for the Center for Education Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Heritage's Project 2025, created as a policy blueprint for a second Trump administration, calls for IDEA funding to be "converted into a no-strings formula block grant" to be sent directly to districts — that section's author, Lindsey Burke, now works at the Education Department.

In her op-ed, and previously, McMahon has reassured families that funding for students with disabilities "will continue indefinitely." It's the federal oversight she's cutting or moving.

But an OSERS staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, worries that, without federal support staff, "states don't have the systems or the staffing to do this."

Ed Martin, who helped write IDEA 50 years ago, says that, without enough staff, there's also no guarantee the money will be spent on the children who need it most: "The administration has decided that nobody needs to watch [the money]."

"The secretary's words are hollow"

The Trump administration has also made deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights. In March, it moved to close seven of OCR's 12 regional offices and to fire 299 workers, leaving roughly half the staff the office had in January. This is when Maggie Heilman lost her first attorney.

In October, the administration attempted to fire another 137 staffers, including gutting the office investigating Heilman's complaint. This left 62 employees at OCR who had not received a termination notice — about 10% of the office's January headcount.

"I'm just shocked that they can destroy an entire unit of an organization that's created by statute," said R. Shep Melnick before some cuts were reversed. Melnick is a professor of American politics at Boston College who has been writing about OCR for decades.

As at OSERS, the employees who were fired in October have since been reinstated, but, again, there is no guarantee they will be allowed to stay beyond Jan. 30.

In a statement, the department's press secretary for legal affairs, Julie Hartman, told NPR: "We are rebuilding and refocusing OCR to enable the office to protect students and enforce the law."

Thousands of languishing civil rights complaints

Even as the administration has tried to cut OCR's enforcement attorneys, it has aggressively used the office to enforce new priorities, going after districts and colleges that support transgender students or embrace diversity, equity and inclusion.

In a statement, Hartman told NPR that OCR had "strayed" under Biden and that Trump "is reorienting OCR to what it's meant to be: a law enforcement agency, not a social-justice advocacy arm of the federal government."

Public data suggests a shift away from disability-related investigations.

Since Trump took office, OCR has reached resolution agreements in 73 cases involving alleged disability discrimination. Compare that to 2024, when OCR resolved 390, or 2017, the year Trump took office during his first term, when OCR reached agreements in more than 1,000 such cases.

In these agreements, school districts often commit to a host of fixes — such as launching a program to monitor the use of restraint and seclusion — that help not just the student at the center of the complaint but other students as well. Still, they require labor-intensive investigations into complaints like Maggie Heilman's, with attorneys conducting interviews and collecting documents.

After Brooklynn's first day at her new middle school, her mother, Maggie Heilman, remembers, "She was smiling. She said, 'Thank you, Mommy. I fit in. I love you.'"

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In her USA Today op-ed, McMahon said, in spite of the cuts to OCR, "protecting students' civil rights is work that will never go away."

To that, Marshall, of COPAA, replied: "Bullcrap. The secretary's words are hollow."

It is possible some of OCR's responsibilities could be shifted to other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, says Kenneth Marcus, who ran OCR during the first Trump administration and founded the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

That doesn't appear to have happened yet, Marcus says. But if it does, he says, "it is entirely possible that this shift will leave us stronger when it comes to civil rights, but we will need to see the details."

Spellings, the former Republican education secretary, says that if the administration continues to focus its diminished resources on high-profile political fights, it will run the risk of failing the parents of disabled children even as it says it champions parents' rights in general: "I believe it when they say, 'Let's put parents in charge.' … OK, so what about the parents who want their options as described in [federal disability law]?"

What's next?

The endgame for the Trump administration, as the president and his education secretary have said repeatedly, is to close the U.S. Department of Education and move the federal jobs and funding streams it considers essential to other agencies.

On social media, McMahon and her staff have openly mocked the department, which she has said is "mostly a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states."

The problem with that view, says Jacqueline Rodriguez of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, is that states need and often want support when it comes to special education. And that support comes from the hundreds of federal staff the administration has been trying to fire.

Without them, Rodriguez says, "we are concerned special education will cease to exist."

"I'm fearful," says one state director of special education, who spoke with NPR on the condition of anonymity out of concern the government would retaliate against that state. "I think it's good for states to know there's federal oversight and that they'll be held accountable. The concept of leaving special education up to states sounds great, but it's scary. What happens if one state decides to interpret the law one way, but another state disagrees and interprets it differently?"

Fifty years ago, Ed Martin helped write the law that made clear to all states and all public schools: Children with disabilities deserve better. The law, he says, was "an affirmation of the values of the country."

He hopes that's still true.

Edited by: Nicole Cohen
Visual design and development by: LA Johnson

Copyright 2025 NPR