Copyright Anchorage Daily News
The Trump administration is exploring moving the $15 billion program that supports students with disabilities to a different agency within the federal government as it works to close the Education Department altogether, a department official said Tuesday The effort comes on the heels of the agency’s decision this month to lay off the vast majority of employees working on special education services and months after Education Secretary Linda McMahon talked about moving the program to the Department of Health and Human Services. Her goal is to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promise to close the Education Department and move its functions to other parts of the government. “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,” Education Department spokeswoman Madi Biedermann said in a statement to The Washington Post on Tuesday. “The Department is exploring additional partnerships with federal agencies to support special education programs without any interruption or impact on students with disabilities.” She added that no agreement has been signed. Moving the agency would not necessarily impact distribution of funding to the states. The money for the current school year has already been sent to states. Congressional action is required to close the department and to move its major functions to other agencies. But earlier this year, the Trump administration pioneered a work-around in which they signed an agreement to move career, technical and adult education grants to the Labor Department. The agreement carefully sidesteps the statutes by having the Education Department retain oversight and leadership while managing the programs alongside Labor. Earlier this month, the Education Department laid off 465 employees, blaming the government shutdown. That included 121 people in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Many of those workers were involved in oversight, working to ensure funding is properly spent. Earlier this year, Trump officials spoke openly about moving special education to HHS, including the $15 billion Individuals with Disabilities Act program, or IDEA, which helps school districts pay costs associated with educating students with disabilities. In an interview with Fox News in March, McMahon noted that IDEA began at what is now HHS. The agency was called the Department of Health, Education and Welfare until 1979, when Education was spun off into its own department. “IDEA funding for our children with disabilities and special needs was in place before there was a Department of Education and it managed to work incredibly well,” she said. Also in March, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on X that his agency was “fully prepared to take on the responsibility of supporting individuals with special needs.” On Tuesday, rumors swirled among groups that work on education and disability issues who voiced concern about the implications of moving the program out of an agency that is focused on education. “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. … It’s a step backward for education and for our country.”
