Disability advocates and education stakeholders are challenging the Trump administration’s steps to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, arguing in a lawsuit that the actions will harm kids with developmental disabilities.
The Arc of the United States and a coalition of educators, school districts, and employee unions say in an amended lawsuit filed late last month that the Education Department’s plan to transfer management of dozens of programs to other federal agencies is illegal.
“In recent weeks, the administration announced plans to move more than 100 programs into agencies that have little or no experience running them. These transfers strip the department of its core functions and threaten to unravel the systems that help schools serve students with disabilities and other historically marginalized groups,” said Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc, who previously served as a top official in the Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS.
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In November, the Education Department said that it would enter into six agreements with four other federal agencies to “co-manage” programs covering K-12, postsecondary education and more. The actions are seen as a workaround to move forward on the Trump administration’s goal of shuttering the Education Department without approval from Congress.
So far, the agreements do not include OSERS — which houses offices overseeing implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and vocational rehabilitation — or the Office for Civil Rights, known as OCR, which handles disability discrimination complaints, but it’s unclear if that will remain the case.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump said that he would move oversight of “special needs” programs to the Department of Health and Human Services and a senior Education Department official said last month that the agency is still “exploring” options for both OSERS and OCR.
“Moving the IDEA to a different department is not only unlawful, but would also weaken the critical systems that ensure students with disabilities can learn, grow, and thrive,” the lawsuit argues. “The Department of Education is the only federal agency with the expertise and infrastructure to uphold the IDEA’s promise.”
The suit indicates that efforts in recent months to fire nearly all staff responsible for administering IDEA — which are currently on hold — violate the law and that terminations at OCR and the closure of most of the office’s regional branches mean that the civil rights office has “all but stopped functioning.”
The updated complaint comes in a case known as Somerville v. Trump, which was initially filed in March by the Somerville Public School Committee, the Easthampton School District, the American Federation of Teachers, AFT Massachusetts, AFSCME Council 93, the American Association of University Professors and the Service Employees International Union. The coalition is represented by Democracy Forward and the matter has been consolidated with another case, New York v. McMahon.
The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
