A bipartisan committee vote in the U.S. Senate is adding to mounting opposition to a Department of Education plan to outsource many special education responsibilities.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted this week to advance legislation blocking the Education Department from transferring or entering into an agreement with any other agency to take over the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, as well as a handful of other offices.
The action comes after Education Department officials said last month that they had reached an interagency agreement, or IAA, with the Department of Health and Human Services to take on many OSERS functions.
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Under the deal, OSERS staff are expected to move to HHS, though they will continue to be supervised by Kelly Rogers, acting assistant secretary overseeing special education, who will remain at the Education Department.
The agreement is one of many the Education Department has reached with other agencies since last year in an effort to follow through on Present Donald Trump’s pledge to close the department. Without approval from Congress, the administration has turned to the IAAs as a workaround.
The Senate committee vote this week, however, shows that even some Republican lawmakers are not on board. The measure is cosponsored by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, alongside Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia.
“These transfers are misaligned with their program purposes,” Collins said before the committee vote, adding that the IAA “fundamentally misunderstands the history and intent of the special education program.”
Collins said the bill “keeps the administration of important landmark education programs at the Department of Education where Congress specifically put them, and where they belong.”
Another Republican, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the committee, did not support the bill prohibiting any IAA related to OSERS, but offered his own plan which would stop the Education Department from sending OSERS responsibilities to HHS while leaving the door open to a similar agreement with another agency. The committee did not vote on that proposal.
The Senate vote comes just weeks after a House of Representatives committee voted to rubber stamp nearly all of the Education Department’s recent IAAs. Notably, however, that effort excluded the agreement related to special education.
“This vote shows that protecting the rights of students with disabilities is not a partisan issue,” said Robyn Linscott, director of education and family policy at The Arc of the United States, about the Senate action.
While it’s unclear whether the Senate bill will move forward as a standalone measure, backers are optimistic that it could be incorporated into a larger package. Advocates say it’s significant that Collins, who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, is a cosponsor.
“This action reflects the wishes of families and educators and marks a significant step toward protecting the rights of students with disabilities,” said Chad Rummel, chief executive officer at the Council for Exceptional Children.
In addition to disability advocates, more than a dozen former Education Department officials who were responsible for overseeing Individuals with Disabilities Education Act implementation under Republican and Democratic administrations dating back to President Richard Nixon have come out against the plan to transfer OSERS’ responsibilities to HHS.
“We urge you to act now, before further damage is done to the systems and protections that make a free, appropriate public education possible for every child with a disability in this country,” they wrote in a letter to lawmakers this month.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and other agency heads who are part of the IAAs, however, argued in a letter this week to House and Senate leaders that the agreements are “commonsense partnerships.”
“Our IAAs allow ED to preserve its legal responsibilities while drawing on the strengths of partner agencies that are better positioned to help certain programs succeed,” they wrote.
Savannah Newhouse, press secretary at the Education Department, said the agency is “working closely with HHS on the beginning stages of implementation” of the OSERS agreement.
“The era of coddling a failed status quo must end,” Newhouse said. “Secretary McMahon promised Congress a proof of concept that is currently underway and delivering results across our partner agencies, and it is entirely premature to sabotage this effort before it has the chance to eliminate bureaucratic barriers and fully deliver the results that our students, families, and educators deserve.”
