Protecting ADHD Care: We Need You
Your Support and Advocacy Matters
CHADD seeks to shape the conversation on how society treats, accommodates, and views people affected by ADHD. Our community is made up of countless people affected by ADHD, their families, teachers, friends, and leaders in the fields of ADHD research, education, and mental health.
Your voice matters. Your experience with ADHD matters. Now is the time for you to take action in whatever way you are able to contribute. Knowing the challenges the ADHD community is facing, are you ready to pitch in with CHADD and be an advocate for your ADHD community?
Become A CHADD Member
CHADD members play a crucial role in our advocacy efforts and you join a community full of resources, support, and services. Together, we can push for policies that create lasting change and improve support for our mission at a broader level.
Your story is incredibly valuable! Your testimonial will be a powerful tool in advocating for policies that support our mission, and we appreciate your role in helping us drive meaningful change.
Let your representatives know what matters—Section 504 support, equal rights for neurodiverse individuals, access to treatment, and continued funding. Your grassroots efforts are essential in shaping policies for our community.
When you donate to CHADD, your dollars go right to work. With your most generous donation, we can do more—more evidence-based information, more top-notch support, and more steadfast advocacy.
ADVOCACY NEWS
Protect IDEA and Civil Rights in Education
Students with ADHD and other disabilities rely on federal oversight to get the educational supports and civil rights protections guaranteed by law. On June 16, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education signed new agreements that are already changing how those responsibilities are handled.
Many disability organizations, educators, families, and members of Congress disagree with the approach. They're concerned that moving these responsibilities outside the Department of Education could:
- Make coordination harder
- Reduce education-specific expertise
- Create uncertainty for students, families, and schools
Why This Matters for Students with ADHD
Students with ADHD often depend on both IDEA and Section 504 for support at school. Two offices have historically made that possible:
- OSERS helps states and schools implement IDEA
- OCR investigates discrimination complaints and enforces Section 504
Together, they've provided the oversight and guidance that students and schools count on. Advocates worry that splitting these duties across agencies could weaken that system.
CHADD believes that protecting the rights and educational opportunities of students with disabilities is, and should remain, a bipartisan issue. Strong oversight and clear accountability, regardless of which party holds power, help ensure that protection stays strong.
When lawmakers hear from students, parents, educators, and clinicians, they better understand how these decisions affect real people. Your voice matters.
Treatment options for ADHD
ADHD is best treated through a combination of approaches. For many people that may include lifestyle support, behavior management or parent training, academic or workplace accommodations, therapy, and/or medication. Every person’s treatment plan should be tailored to their specific needs and not every plan will include the listed approaches.
Recent executive orders could reduce or eliminate the choices an individual, or a parent for their child, and their ADHD specialist could make in designing their treatment plan. Changing the established, evidence-based standard of care could lead some insurance organizations to no longer cover prescribed treatment, whether that is parent training programs, therapy, or medication to treat ADHD symptoms. This could place care options out of financial reach for the majority of people in the ADHD community.
Funding that helps support CHADD and the ADHD community
Research on ADHD has a long history of receiving support, both from public universities and research hospitals and through funding from various agencies in the federal government. Many research universities and centers are now facing a loss of federal funding or a steep decrease in funding which will affect medical research, including for ADHD, for at least a generation. Health and community organizations are worried that critical funding awarded by or from contracts with the federal government will be discontinued.
CHADD hosts the National Resource Center on ADHD, the national clearing house for the latest evidence-based information on ADHD, sharing information to individuals and families that they can use today to improve their lives. The NRC makes CHADD unique, as all its information is vetted by leading professionals on its advisory board and researchers on ADHD connected with the CDC.
The NRC is primarily funded through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. It is the premier program for disseminating accurate information on ADHD and providing support for families who have loved ones with ADHD.
Without this federal support, CHADD would have to seek other sources of funding to continue to provide these resources to the ADHD community. We know there are many generous donors and endowment organizations, but very few of them can make up the financial gap if federal support is discontinued. It would mean a reduction in the valuable services CHADD provides for the ADHD community.
Progress made in the availability of evidence-based ADHD information
CHADD's National Resource Center operates the only ADHD helpline in the United States, taking more than 2,500 phone calls and email requests in 2024. It maintains a database of specialists across the country, including resources for lifestyle support such as coaching, diet, and exercise. It has a catalogue of evidence-based information on all aspects of ADHD for children and adults that is entirely free to the public.
CHADD’s insistence on science-based information set the standard. Today, there are websites, magazines, and conferences that provide accurate information on ADHD because CHADD insisted on no less in our publications.
The work of disseminating accurate, science-based and evidence-based information is at risk. There are many influencers and organizations that want a place at the table where ADHD conversations are held—and not all of those organizations are willing to meet that high standard of providing accurate information. Sadly, some of these organizations trade in misinformation and fears about the science of ADHD and use the opportunity to push false claims.
CURRENT ISSUES
We have heard the frustrations many members of the ADHD community are experiencing when they go to refill their ADHD medications, the disappointment and worry when the pharmacy is unable to fill a prescription because of the ongoing shortage. CHADD’s public policy committee is pursuing all appropriate channels to bring this to the attention of…
The challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate. And the effect these challenges have had on their mental health is devastating. Recent national surveys of young people have shown alarming increases in the prevalence of certain mental health challenges. We know that mental health is shaped by many…
In 2022, CHADD received funds from a generous donor to sponsor and support the development of national guidelines in the U.S. for the diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD. This milestone has been achieved due to the sustained efforts of our Public Policy Committee and builds on the committee’s published recommendations emerging from a national…
Posted October 8, 2020 Presentation to the Joint Meeting of the Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee of the US Food and Drug Administration Public Meeting on Patient-Focused Drug Development for Stimulant Use Disorder Presented by Robert Cattoi, CHADD Chief Executive Officer Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder…
CHADD is pleased to report that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will not seek changes to the central tenets of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. In her report, the Secretary is “not requesting waiver authority for any of the core tenets of the IDEA or Section…
Read the update to this post. Dear Parents, The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, PL 116-136, directs Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to report back to Congress no later than April 26, 2020, on any waivers needed under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section…
The CHADD Public Policy Committee is sharing the document Questions and Answers on Providing Services to Children with Disabilities during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak. This document addresses questions on IDEA and Section 504 educational plans, along with meeting the needs of children with disabilities who may also be affected by COVID-19. The Centers for…
The US Food and Drug Administration recently asked for comments on making stimulant medications more difficult to abuse and how those changes could affect the millions of people who include medication in their ADHD treatment plans. The Federal Register notice states that stimulant medications can be open to abuse but that reformulating them can potentially…
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ADHD care requires nuance, not alarm. Suzanne Sophos, CMPSS, CHADD’s president-elect puts it this way, “Families need accurate information and better systems—not headlines that take data from the most vulnerable children and apply it to everyone.” The Wall Street Journal’s recent article suggests “millions of kids” enter a dangerous medication cascade after starting ADHD treatment.…
ADDITIONAL ACTIONS
Volunteer with CHADD
If you would like to donate your time, specialized skills, or expertise to our advocacy efforts, please contact our Advocacy and Public Policy Committee.
Contact CHADD
Do you have great ideas for advocacy efforts? Are you able to provide pro bono services? Do you have expertise in education law, coalition organizing, or media relations? Complete our Call to Action survey and share your insight.
Analysis and Impact of Federal Healthcare and Education Policies
Several proposed federal policies have the potential to affect ADHD diagnosis, treatment, and educational support for individuals and families. Experts in ADHD diagnosis and treatment will review research-based responses to the MAHA Commission's claims about ADHD and discuss the critical role the US Department of Education plays in supporting students who have ADHD.
ADVOCACY PARTNERS
U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WEBSITES
RESOURCES
WHITE PAPER
Proceedings of the ADHD Public Health Summit
Washington, DC
October 7, 2019
Presented by Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)
CHADD Advocacy Manual