The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education building is pictured on November 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education plans to move the $15 billion Individuals with Disabilities Education Act program away from the Washington Post. reported Tuesday.
In a statement to States Newsroom, department spokeswoman Madi Biedermann did not specifically confirm the report, but said the department is generally looking at ways to shift its operations to other agencies. President Donald Trump announced he would eliminate the Department of Education.
The agency is “considering additional partnerships with federal agencies to support special education programs without disrupting or impacting students with disabilities, but no agreement has been signed,” Biedermann wrote.
Biedermann said Education Secretary Linda McMahon “has made it very clear that her goal is to get rid of jobs by closing the Department of Education and returning education to the states” and that McMahon “is fully committed to protecting federal funding streams that support students with disabilities in our country.”
The Trump administration decided to lay off 465 department employees, including 121 in the US Office of Special Education and Rehabilitationearlier this month amid the ongoing government shutdown.
A federal judge did temporarily blocked the administration from carrying out the layoffs, but the ruling provides only short-term relief as the legal proceedings unfold.
Many of the department’s responsibilities include providing free public education to students with disabilities through IDEA.
Trump has already suggested moving special education services to the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – he said on social media in March that the agency was “fully prepared” to take on this responsibility.
Completely shifting responsibility for IDEA would require an act of Congress – a significant undertaking, given that it takes at least 60 votes to break a Senate filibuster and Republicans have just 53 seats.
