During the 2025 shutdown, the Trump administration used permanent layoffs to slash the Education Department, hitting special education the hardest. Offices that run and enforce IDEA were reduced to a skeleton crew, while the civil rights office closed regional branches and left many cases unresolved. At the same time, the White House pushed to shrink or close the department, floated moving special-ed oversight to HHS, and proposed bundling IDEA programs in ways that could cut or repurpose funds. The administration also canceled active special-education grants and technical-assistance projects. Experts and watchdogs called the RIFs unprecedented for a shutdown, and states, advocates, and attorneys general sued—warning that services for millions of students with disabilities would suffer.
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¶ During the shutdown, The Trump Administration gutted the offices that implement and oversee special education programs
- AP reporting documented that 466 Education Department staff were laid off amid government-wide firings intended to pressure lawmakers, with offices overseeing special education and civil rights among those hit. (apnews.com)
- The office that implements the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) saw all but a handful of top officials slated for firing, according to union accounts cited by AP. (washingtonpost.com)
- NPR reporting (carried by public media affiliates) detailed that the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)—including the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)—was effectively gutted through RIF notices during the shutdown. (kpbs.org)
- Education Week reported that OSEP was among several Education Department offices that could be “virtually wiped out” by the latest layoffs. (edweek.org)
- Historically, shutdowns have relied on temporary furloughs; Reuters noted no prior administration used a shutdown to justify mass terminations, underscoring that the 2025 firings were a marked break from precedent. (reuters.com)
- The nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service called the shutdown RIFs “unnecessary and misguided,” warning they would hollow out government capacity to deliver essential services. (ourpublicservice.org)
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- AP and advocates warned that slashing the special-education office from roughly 200 workers to about five would make it impossible for the federal government to fulfill its IDEA obligations to millions of students with disabilities. (washingtonpost.com)
- NPR affiliates reported that the RIF affected staff responsible for approximately $15 billion in special-education funding and nationwide IDEA oversight, threatening services for 7.5 million children with disabilities. (wusf.org)
¶ 2025: The Trump Administration moved to dismantle the Education Department and gutted the federal offices that implement IDEA and enforce disability rights
- The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal special-education law that guarantees eligible children with disabilities a “free appropriate public education” (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment through Individualized Education Programs (IEPs); it also funds early-intervention services, with Part B covering ages 3–21 and Part C covering birth–2. (ed.gov)
- Trump signed an executive order directing steps to close or drastically shrink the Department of Education (ED), even as reporters and officials noted that Congress created ED and that major functions like IDEA oversight cannot lawfully be eliminated without legislation. (washingtonpost.com)
- The Education Department carried out mass layoffs in 2025 that slashed agency capacity, including firing nearly all staff in the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), which implements IDEA, leaving “about five” people to run it. (apnews.com)
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces disability rights under Section 504 in schools, closed seven of its 12 regional offices and lost roughly half its staff, leaving thousands of discrimination cases in limbo. (ap.org)
- A coalition of 20 state attorneys general and others sued to block the dismantling and layoffs, a federal judge issued an injunction in May 2025, and the administration sought Supreme Court permission to proceed—underscoring an ongoing push to strip ED’s capacity. (apnews.com)
-The White House “skinny budget” and ED leadership proposed consolidating seven IDEA programs into a single “Special Education Simplified Funding Program,” part of a broader plan to wind down ED. (whitehouse.gov)
- Independent analyses found the proposal cuts ED’s topline by 15% and leaves IDEA funding essentially flat once the costs of folded-in programs are counted, despite appearances of an increase. (npr.org)
- Education Week reported the shift would eliminate separate, dedicated streams that now fund things like preschool services, parent information centers, teacher training, assistive technology, and other IDEA supports—moving them into one pot states could repurpose. (edweek.org)-
¶ The administration canceled and withheld special-education grants and technical assistance that directly serve students with disabilities and their families
- ED issued “non‑continuation” notices in 2025 canceling more than $30 million in special‑education grants mid‑cycle, including 17 teacher‑training projects, four statewide deaf‑blind centers, three community parent resource centers, and a technical assistance center that helps states improve special‑education data. (edweek.org)
- Reporting also documented a broader grants cancellation spree and freezes that disrupted special‑education projects and services nationwide. (edweek.org)
¶ The administration sought to move federal special-education oversight out of The Education Department to HHS, raising legal and capacity concerns from disability experts
- Trump and senior officials announced plans to shift special‑education (“special needs”) programs from ED to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), even though IDEA places OSEP in ED by law; advocates and former OSEP leaders warned this would undermine IDEA’s educational mission and likely violates statute. (the74million.org)
- Educators and policy reporters detailed how the announced move, paired with layoffs in OSERS/OSEP, slowed compliance monitoring and rattled state implementation of IDEA. (edweek.org)