A judge indefinitely blocked the U.S. Department of Education from laying off nearly every staffer in its special education office, but advocates say concerns about the future of the program remain.
At a hearing this week, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California barred federal agencies, including the Education Department, from firing workers during the government shutdown.
The decision comes more than two weeks after the Education Department laid off 121 employees in its 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. Unions representing many affected workers sued over the job cuts.
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In moving to extend a temporary pause issued earlier this month, Illston said she expects to find that the government’s actions to authorize so-called reductions in force, or RIFs, during the shutdown are “unlawful.”
“I believe that I will find that their actions are arbitrary and capricious as shown by the haphazard way in which the RIFs have rolled out and they are intended for the purpose of political retribution,” Illston said.
Illston told the Trump administration not to implement RIF notices issued since the government shutdown began earlier this month and not to issue any new ones.
Disability advocates welcomed the decision to halt the layoffs, but cautioned that the situation remains fraught.
“We are thankful for the role the courts are playing in keeping this horrific decimation from going forward,” said Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, or COPAA, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of students with disabilities and their families. “We will not relent or be relieved until it’s permanently behind us. The threat remains high for students with disabilities and their families.”
Currently, many federal workers are furloughed due to the shutdown, but per the court order, workers are expected to return to the Education Department’s special education office whenever the government reopens, Marshall said.
However, 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 under President George W. Bush, said it is likely that the government will appeal Illston’s decision to block the layoffs.
“If the RIFs are not reversed, OSEP will be unable to fulfill the responsibilities required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) even after the shutdown ends,” Lee said. “Without staff to oversee the monitoring and grant programs, or send out funding to the states and centers, services for students with disabilities will erode.”
Education Department officials did not respond to questions about the current status of the layoffs, but in a statement earlier this month Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the shutdown has shown that the agency is not needed.
“Millions of American students are still going to school, teachers are getting paid, and schools are operating as normal,” she said, adding that the shutdown “confirms what the president has said: the federal Department of Education is unnecessary, and we should return education to the states.”
Since then, Education Department officials have indicated that they are talks with other agencies about taking on special education programs, further rattling advocates.
“Families should continue to sound the alarm with their elected officials,” Mashall from COPAA said. “We want Congress to hold an oversight hearing, and to assure that the administration has the capacity to and does oversee the implementation and oversight of IDEA.”
