President Donald Trump has pledged to shutter the Department of Education but also promised that students with disabilities will keep getting the services they need. Special education advocates, school district officials and teachers say mass federal layoffs mean that too few people are left to carry out a complicated law intended to protect some of the nation’s most vulnerable students’ right to an education.
The administration laid off nearly half the Education Department’s staff and slashed its civil rights enforcement arm, and Trump says he wants to move special education programs to the Department of Health and Human Services — an agency that announced its own round of mass layoffs in March.
The nation’s teachers unions, along with the NAACP, two Massachusetts public school districts and others have sued, challenging the many changes. They argue the diminished Education Department will no longer be able to fulfill its duties, which, by law, include ensuring that the 7.5 million students with disabilities receive the services that the law says they should receive.
The Trump administration’s actions threaten to return education to an “era where federal government was nearly absent and the states were left to their own devices to do whatever they want for these vulnerable student populations,” said Robert Kim, executive director of the Education Law Center, one of the groups that filed a lawsuit against the proposed changes. “Some will maintain and do as much or more, and many will go the opposite direction.”
The changes have left parents and schools confused about what’s to come. Here’s what we know about what the Trump administration’s actions and plans mean for students with disabilities. If you have questions we haven’t answered here, tell us: editor@hechingerreport.org.
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What does the Department of Education do for students with disabilities?
Since the modern Education Department started operating in 1980, it has served students with disabilities by overseeing their right to a “free appropriate public education” under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. The department investigates complaints that schools are violating the rights of students with disabilities, allocates billions of dollars that schools use to provide services for those students annually and provides guidance and support to states and schools.
The department also funds more than 50 technical assistance centers that provide guidance, training and information to help states and districts serve students with disabilities and runs the Rehabilitation Services Administration, which helps states connect people with disabilities to jobs and training.
Related: Trump’s actions to abolish the Education Department, and what happens next
What could change for my child if special education oversight moves to the federal Department of Health and Human Services?
Trump wants to shift responsibility for federal special education programs from the Education Department to the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, but has not provided any specifics about what that transition would look like. Trump told reporters in March that HHS “will be handling special needs.”
Parents might not see an immediate difference in their children’s education, but experts warn Trump’s planned move could mean big changes in the classroom. Advocates are worried that oversight and support for schools would suffer because HHS does not have education expertise, and the needs of many children with disabilities are educational, not medical.
Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, said the move would “take us back 50 years.”
“We wouldn’t take our kids to the doctor to learn reading and math, and we don’t want a primarily medical model overseeing education,” she said.
While Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on March 21 that his agency is “fully prepared to take on the responsibility of supporting individuals with special needs,” he hasn’t provided details. He also said he plans to downsize HHS, shedding 20,000 staffers in total — about a quarter of the workforce, raising questions about its capacity to provide the support and protection to students with disabilities as required by law.
Will my school get less funding for special education under the proposed changes?
Under IDEA, states received about $14 billion last year to educate and support students with disabilities. Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have both said they will preserve that budget. McMahon went further, saying she would like to see more money spent on special education.
Congress ultimately decides how much to spend on what and hasn’t indicated it would cut special education dollars. Advocates and schools have long argued federal special education funding falls short of what has been promised.
Republican leaders have announced plans to cut Medicaid spending, however, which could affect students with disabilities. Some schools are reimbursed by Medicaid for services such as occupational and physical therapy. Students would still be entitled by law to those services, but cuts to Medicaid money could strain schools’ ability to deliver them.
Could my child’s IEP change as a result of what’s happening at the Education Department?
Local schools work with families to create a child’s individualized education program — the document that outlines a student’s needs and the services they should receive. So far, the administration’s plans would not change that process or the laws that must be followed to develop and carry out an IEP.
Advocates are concerned, however, that any reduction in federal guidance and oversight could put pressure on schools to pull back services, including those spelled out in IEPs. They also worry that without anyone in the federal government keeping tabs on how special education is being delivered, cash-strapped districts could try to cut corners at the expense of students with disabilities.
What about 504 plans?
People with disabilities also have rights under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The act forbids discrimination against people with disabilities by any entity that receives federal money. In an educational context, students with 504 plans have conditions that require accommodations, such as allowing extra time on tests or note-taking assistance.
None of the Trump administration’s changes specifically target these provisions. However, last year, attorneys general in 17 states filed a federal lawsuit seeking to upend protections for transgender individuals by challenging the constitutionality of Section 504. The Biden administration added “gender dysphoria” as a protected disability under Section 504.
For now, all regulations regarding 504 plans remain in place.
The Trump administration said in a February court filing that it “continues to evaluate their position” following an executive order stating agencies shall not “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.”
Is there no such thing as due process now? Can I no longer file a complaint if my child’s IEP isn’t being followed?
Students still have due process rights under IDEA, and families who believe their children’s rights to an appropriate education are being violated can still file complaints at both the state and federal levels.
But the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, the federal office that investigates civil rights complaints, has lost half its staff, and it’s likely that an existing backlog of complaints will only grow. About 12,000 complaints were pending before Trump took office, more than half concerning students with disabilities.
Families can still try filing complaints with the federal government, but with the loss of Education Department civil rights lawyers, students and families may lack the assistance they need to seek accountability from unwilling or poorly managed districts.
In addition, existing settlements between the federal government and local districts that were meant to address discrimination or lack of access to an appropriate education, such as improper use of restraint and seclusion, may not be monitored as closely.
Lindsay Kubatzky, the director of policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, urged families with concerns about their students’ rights to nevertheless file complaints at the local, state and federal levels.
“Certainly parents and family members have due process rights that are still in place, and mediation rights,” Kubatzky said. “They can do that at the local level, but there’s still no oversight broadly from the Department of Education on supporting and making sure that civil rights aren’t being violated by schools and districts.”
Related: What might happen if the Education Department were closed?
Can the Trump administration make these changes without Congress?
Congress would need to act to abolish the Education Department, something McMahon acknowledged in her confirmation hearing. But she said she supported the president’s push to remove “burdensome regulations and paperwork” and slash spending on “progressive social experiments and obsolete programs.”
Without Congress, the Trump administration can make staffing changes or set new policy priorities, and it has done so aggressively. Three lawsuits charge that the gutting of the agency is tantamount to closing it and are challenging the layoffs.
In a recent executive order, Trump directed the education secretary to “take all necessary steps to facilitate” the Education Department’s closure while “ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Marshall, of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, said that a president’s use of executive orders is limited — they can’t rewrite or override existing federal statutes or regulations, including reallocating federal dollars or transferring programs to other agencies.
The 1979 law establishing the Education Department specifically created the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Congress tasked the department with “administering and carrying out” the IDEA law and other federal programs for children with disabilities.
Congress would have to pass a new law or amend an existing one to move that office, Marshall said.
McMahon said in a statement that she’ll work through Congress to “ensure a lawful and orderly transition.” She didn’t provide specifics about her next steps.
How have mass layoffs at the Education Department affected children with disabilities and those who serve them?
The Education Department was down to roughly 2,183 workers as of mid-March, according to the administration, from 4,133 workers on the day of Trump’s inauguration. It also shuttered seven of its 12 regional civil rights enforcement offices.
While most of the staffers working in the special education office did not lose their jobs, some policy experts and lawyers were among those who were let go, which could affect the speed and accuracy of the support states receive. That could trickle down to families, especially if they are in districts that don’t have much in-house expertise or experience.
The lawsuit filed by unions and Massachusetts schools argues: “The entire staff that provides policy and legal guidance to states and other grantees about how to implement IDEA, as well as the entire communications staff that ensures that key information gets out to students, parents, schools, and states, were terminated.”
Some effects are already being felt. The National Center for Youth Law and COPAA filed a lawsuit in March on behalf of two parents who have pending civil rights claims, asking for a judge to order the agency to continue conducting investigations.The two advocacy groups say that families with pending complaints are in the dark about the status of their cases and that OCR has barred employees from communicating with students, families and schools and canceled meetings and mediations.
What about federal money for research about special education students?
As part of its sweeping cost-cutting spree, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, canceled at least two grants researching school-to-work transition services for youth with disabilities, including:
- A $45 million contract aimed at improving the post-graduation outcomes of high school students with disabilities that began in 2019 and was slated to end in February 2025
- A $33 million contract for a long-term study following how students with disabilities fare after high school
The Trump administration also decimated the Education Department’s statistics arm from roughly 100 employees to a staff of three.
Related: IES, the Institute of Education Sciences, is in disarray after layoffs
The statistics agency publishes the Nation’s Report Card, which provides a comprehensive look at how schools across the country are educating students.
“That’s a really critical piece of information that is used by researchers and advocacy groups to understand how we’re educating students across the country and specific subgroups of students, like students with disabilities,” Kubatzky, of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said. “It’s unclear how they’re going to be able to administer that going forward with such limited staff.”
Contact investigative reporter Marina Villeneuve at 212-678-3430 or villeneuve@hechingerreport.org.
Contact senior investigative reporter Meredith Kolodner at 212-870-1063 or kolodner@hechingerreport.org or on Signal at merkolodner.04
This story about special education under Trump was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
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