Education Dept. Fails to Reassure Disability Advocates

The U.S. Department of Education held a private call with disability rights advocates on Thursday in an attempt to ease growing concerns about plans to shift oversight of special education to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), but the effort left advocates with more questions than answers, according to NPR.

The Failed Outreach

Acting Assistant Secretary Kelly Rogers told advocates on the call that “HHS is not taking over IDEA. Period,” referring to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal law that guarantees 7.5 million students with disabilities a free appropriate public education. However, she confirmed that staff from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) would physically move to HHS while she would maintain oversight from the Education Department with “additional support by HHS.”

Chad Rummel, CEO of the Council for Exceptional Children, who attended the call, said: “Today’s briefing left more questions than answers for parents and educators. Today we heard that there is no clear and transparent plan around the move to HHS.”

Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), described the proposal as adding “another layer of bureaucracy while creating additional confusion and uncertainty for families, educators, and state agencies.” She later called the strategy “a sham.”

Broader Dismantling Effort

The special education move is part of the Trump administration’s broader “Returning Education to the States” initiative, which has already shifted more than a dozen Education Department offices to other federal agencies via interagency agreements (IAAs). As NPR previously reported, the department announced on June 16 that it would also move its Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has overseen the departure of approximately 2,000 employees, cutting the department’s workforce by at least half. The department has now signed 14 interagency agreements, outsourcing day-to-day operations of core programs without congressional approval.

Legal and Historical Context

A federal agency can only be completely dissolved by an act of Congress, which the administration has not obtained. Critics argue that federal law requires OSERS to exist within the Education Department. Special education programs originally resided in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare before Congress split that agency in 1979, making the move back to HHS a reversal of a 47-year-old congressional decision.

The conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint, which has guided many Trump administration actions, recommended moving special education to HHS and converting IDEA funding into block grants. The author of that section, Lindsey Burke, now works within the Education Department guiding its dismantling.

Advocate Concerns

Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, articulated a central fear: “The concern is not that IDEA disappears overnight. The concern is that the administration is preserving IDEA at the Department of Education on paper, while moving much of the work that makes IDEA real for families somewhere else.”

Chad Rummel of CEC warned that moving special education to HHS shifts from an educational model to a medical model: “IDEA is an education law — not a health law — and moving it to the health department is more than a bureaucratic change; it segregates special education from K-12 programs.”

Congressional Pushback

On June 25, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) introduced a resolution to impeach McMahon, citing illegal transfers of programs without congressional approval. As reported by Disability Scoop, disability advocates have been working for more than a year to push back against the plans.

What’s Next

Federal funds for special education will continue to flow through the Education Department for now, but the mechanism may change when OSERS staff move to HHS. Department press secretary Savannah Newhouse told advocates they have “nothing to fear,” saying “a different building, a different floor, or a different desk doesn’t change their job responsibilities.” But as Education Week noted, key questions remain about the timeline, staff impacts, funding changes, and accountability mechanisms — leaving families of 7.5 million students with disabilities in a state of uncertainty.