• German defense contractor Rheinmetall’s stock price has skyrocketed more than 1,000% since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. As the EU plans a €800 billion boost in defense spending, Rheinmetall expects growth to remain strong.

German defense contractor Rheinmetall sees unprecedented gains ahead as Europe embarks on a massive military buildup, even after reporting already-strong growth.

Headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, the company reported 2024 total revenue of €9.8 billion on Wednesday, up 36% from 2023. The defense business led the company’s sales growth last year, surging 50% to €7.6 billion. Additionally, the backlog increased 44% to €55 billion a new record high.

Last year’s growth was helped by Europe’s continued military aid for Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Rheinmetall’s stock price has climbed more than 1,000%.

Meanwhile, the European Union recently announced plans to increase its defense spending by €800 billion ($867 billion) as historic US allies seek to take more responsibility for their security.

“An era of rearmament has begun in Europe that will demand a lot from all of us,” CEO Armin Papperger said in a statement. “However, it also brings us at Rheinmetall growth prospects for the coming years that we have never experienced before.”

For this year, Rheinmetall expects total sales to increase 25%-30% and defense sales to climb 35%-40%. While those numbers would fall short of 2024’s, actual sales by the end of the year could turn out to be even bigger.

Rheinmetall noted in its report the outlook does not take into account “geopolitical developments in recent weeks,” saying updates to its forecasts could come later as requirements of its military customers become clearer.

“With a 50% sales growth in the defence business, Rheinmetall is on its way from being a European systems supplier to a global champion,” Papperger said. 

In recent years, the European leader in munition production invested nearly €8 billion in new manufacturing facilities, acquisitions, and supply-chain security. In January, Rheinmetall announced it acquired a majority share in a Bavarian software developer that specializes in digitizing warfare.

In addition to manufacturing missiles and bombs, Rheinmetall also makes tanks, air-defense systems, and autonomous ground vehicles. Most notably, it produces the Panther KF51 main battle tank. A major supplier to Ukraine, Rheinmetall has plants in the war-torn country along with Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania.

Additionally, the company looks to continue its growth in Germany and is reportedly interested in a Volkswagen plant in Osnabrük. 

On Wednesday, Papperger said the facility would be “very suitable” for the company’s expansion plans and would be more affordable than building a factory from the ground up. 

Papperger cautioned that while there was no concept for Rheinmetall to move onto Volkswagen’s turf, things could still move quickly.

“One thing is clear: before I’ll build a new tank factory in Germany, we’ll of course take a look at it,” he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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For parents of kids with disabilities, advocating for their child can be complicated, time-consuming — and expensive.

Changes at the Education Department are likely to make the process even more difficult, advocates for kids with disabilities say.

When a parent believes their child is not receiving proper services or school accommodations for a disability, they can seek remedies from their district. They can file complaints with their state, arguing the child’s rights have been taken away without due process of law, or even pursue litigation in state or federal courts.

Those processes often involve multiple sessions with hearing officers who are not required to be experts in disability law. Legal fees can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single case. Legal aid and other advocacy organizations that can provide free assistance often have more demand for their services than they can meet.

But filing a complaint with the Education Department has long been an option for families who can’t afford a lawyer. They begin by filling out the Office for Civil Rights’ online form, documenting the alleged instances of discrimination. From there, the agency’s staff is supposed to investigate the complaint, often interviewing school district employees and examining district policies for broader possible violations.

“It’s known and has the weight of the federal government behind it,” said Dan Stewart, managing attorney for education and employment at the National Disability Rights Network. “The process, the complaint portal, as well as the processing manual are all in public, and it does not require or typically involve lawyers.”

That option seems increasingly out of reach, advocates say.

Under President Donald Trump, the Education Department’s staff has been cut approximately in half — including in the Office for Civil Rights, whose attorneys are charged with investigating complaints of discrimination against kids with disabilities. The staff has been directed to prioritize antisemitism cases. More than 20,000 pending cases — including those related to kids with disabilities, historically the largest share of the office’s work — largely sat idle for weeks after Trump took office. A freeze on processing the cases was lifted early this month, but advocates question whether the department can make progress on them with a smaller staff.

“The reduction in force is simply an evisceration of the Office for Civil Rights’ investigatory authority and responsibility,” Stewart said. “There’s no way that I can see that OCR can keep up with the backlog or with the incoming complaints.”

A federal lawsuit filed Friday challenges the layoffs at the Office for Civil Rights, saying they decimated the office’s ability to process and investigate complaints.

While the OCR process was not perfect, reducing the office’s investigative staff will only worsen the challenges families face when seeking support for their kids, said Nikki Carter, an advocate for kids with disabilities and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“It makes them feel hopeless and helpless,” Carter said. “By reducing the number of employees to handle cases, by putting stipulations on certain cases, it only makes it feel intensified.”

Education Department officials insist the staff reductions will not affect civil rights investigations and the layoffs were “strategic decisions.”

In her state of Alabama, Carter said families face an uphill battle to finding legal representation.

“They don’t have the money for an attorney,” she said. “Or the representation they’re getting is not the representation they feel like will be best for their child.”

Even if families can afford the high costs, a limited number of attorneys have the expertise to take on disability discrimination cases. Programs that offer free representation often have limited capacity.

If the backlog of cases increases at the federal Office for Civil Rights, families may lose faith in how quickly the department will investigate their complaints, Stewart said. That may drive them to alternate pathways, such as filing state complaints.

But state and local agencies haven’t always had the capacity or understanding to handle education disability complaints, Stewart said, since those cases so often went to the U.S. Education Department.

“They might not have the infrastructure or the knowledge or the staffing to take on the influx of cases,” Stewart said.

In a separate federal lawsuit filed Thursday, Democratic attorneys general argued the staff reductions at the Education Department may embolden school districts to ignore complaints of discrimination or harassment.

“Students with current complaints will likely see no meaningful resolution, with cases backlogged due to the shortage of employees to resolve them,” the lawsuit said. “Students facing discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual assault will lose a critical avenue to report their case.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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