The U.S. Department of Education is in talks to move oversight of special education programs to another federal agency.
An Education Department official said this week that the agency is working to make good on pledges from President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to close the department and send special education elsewhere.
“Secretary McMahon has been very clear that her goal is to put herself out of a job by shutting down the Department of Education and returning education to the states,” said Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Education Department. “The department is exploring additional partnerships with federal agencies to support special education programs without any interruption or impact on students with disabilities, but no agreement has been signed.”
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Trump said in March that he would move “special needs” programs to the Department of Health and Human Services. At the time, the administration offered no details about which programs would move, what the process would look like or when it would occur.
HHS officials referred an inquiry this week about the matter to the Education Department.
Biedermann did not respond to questions about which agencies the Education Department is in talks with, exactly which programs could be affected or when this might happen, but she indicated that funding should not be impacted.
“Secretary McMahon is fully committed to protecting the federal funding streams that support our nation’s students with disabilities,” Biedermann said.
The possible changes come as the federal role in special education is already in upheaval. Earlier this month, 121 employees were let go from the Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services leaving no more than a handful of staff in the agency’s Office of Special Education Programs, which administers funding and oversees implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The layoffs were temporarily paused by a federal judge, but disability advocates said that if the job cuts go through there is no way that such a skeleton staff could fulfill the statutory requirements of IDEA.
Shifting special education oversight to another agency could further undermine services for students with disabilities, education and disability advocates warned.
“Moving special education out of the Department of Education demonstrates a disregard for the educational needs of students with disabilities,” said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents Association. “America’s special education students are embedded at every level, in every program that the department oversees. Siloing these supports, funding and services in a separate agency undermines the achievements of the last 50 years to fully include special education students in every aspect of public education. It’s a step backward for education and for our country.”
Nicole Fuller, associate director of policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, noted that the Education Department has experts on IDEA, data collection, monitoring of states and more. She likened moving special education from the Education Department to HHS to expecting a child’s pediatrician to teach them.
“Both pediatricians and teachers play valuable roles in a child’s life and can work in tandem, but have unique skill sets,” she said.
There are also questions about the legality of transferring special education programs out of the Education Department.
“The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) clearly designates the Secretary of Education as the only agency head responsible for ensuring states and agencies meet the conditions and requirements in IDEA,” said Stephanie Smith Lee, co-director of policy and advocacy at the National Down Syndrome Congress, who served as director of the Education Department’s Office of Special Education Programs, or OSEP, under President George W. Bush. “Moving OSEP would have a detrimental impact on students with disabilities, teachers and schools.”
