ED RIFs update: # 1
What has been happening in sped world with the US Department of Education reductions in force?
Editor’s note: I have been aggregating news about the US federal government’s reductions in force that occurred in the special education offices of the Department of Education since about 10 October 2025. This is the first of a series of updates that I’ll be posting here on Special Education Today. At the foot of this message there is a catalog of earlier posts on SET about this topic.—JohnL
What is are we learning about the reduction in force at the US Department of Education? Here’s our latest (updated as of 1:50 PM Monday 13 October 2025.
Updates
On 12 October 2025 at 1:00 PM, Kara Arundel of K-12 Dive published "RIFs rip through federal Office of Special Education Programs: With OSEP reportedly decimated, one special education expert asks: How can IDEA “possibly function”?1
During this tumultuous year at the U.S. Department of Education that saw about half of the 4,133 employees leave due to layoffs, buyouts and early retirements, the staff at the Office of Special Education Programs stayed mostly stable.
That changed on Friday, however, when the Trump administration issued reduction-in-force notices across the federal government, including at the Education Department. Court filings show that 466 employees at the Education Department were impacted and several special education association leaders say most of the OSEP staff was laid off.
On 12 October 2025 at approximately 9:00 PM, the Division for Early Childhood (a subgroup of the Council for Exceptional Children) published a press release entitled “Reduction in Force: Federal Partners at the U.S. Department of Education.” Here is the first paragraph:
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) engaged in a round of layoffs late this week, as reported by USA Today and other sources. At that time, it appeared that personnel from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, including the Office for Special Education Programs (OSEP) and Rehabilitative Services Administration (RSA) were spared. However, we soon learned that a significant number of the personnel still remaining at the OSEP and RSA were terminated. The scope of terminations has not been verified, but multiple trusted sources have indicated that it has impacted nearly everyone working within those offices.
On 13 October 2025 at 5:00 AM Cory Turner of NPR (US National Public Radio) reported “Amid shutdown, Trump administration guts department overseeing special education.” Here is his lede; in addition to reading it, I encourage readers to listen to Mr. Turner’s discussion of his coverage of the story. (OPB.org reprinted Mr. Turner’s story under the same title.)
Sweeping layoffs announced Friday by the Trump administration landed another body blow to the U.S. Department of Education, this time gutting the office responsible for overseeing special education, according to multiple sources within the department.
The reduction-in-force, or RIF, affects the dozens of staff responsible for roughly $15 billion dollars in special education funding, and for making sure states provide special education services to the nation’s 7.5 million children with disabilities.
On 13 October 2025 at 11:04 AM the Council for Exceptional Children sent an email message to its members (and probably others) with the subject, “Action Alert: Restore the Office of Special Education Programs.” It included a link to “take action.” Here is the lede text from that site.
The U.S. Department of Education engaged in sweeping layoffs on October 11, as has been widely reported. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and Rehabilitative Services Administration (RSA) have been nearly eliminated in that “reduction in force” effort. This news, which comes on the heels of a significant reduction in force at ED this spring that has already shrunk the workforce by nearly half, is devastating. It eliminates the expertise and oversight critical to ensuring IDEA implementation in states, eroding rights for children with disabilities and their parents. Without OSEP, IDEA is in grave jeopardy. We urgently call on you to appeal to Congress to undo these cuts for the sake of children with disabilities, their families, and the educators who serve them.
Please let me know if you have addition content that ought to be represented here. I know of some other sources that are not represented in the foregoing paragraphs, but I would appreciate help from the community in locating more news.2
Previous coverage
Here are links to posts published earlier on SET that cover aspects of this story.
On 12 October 2025 at 5:00 AM:
US federal special education workforce reduced
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According to news reports, as a part of a substantial reduction in force of the US federal government, on10 and 11 October 2025 the US Department of Education laid off or fired many employees respons…
Footnote
Flash of the old electrons to Dear Reader Shanna H. for passing this bit of news to me the evening of 12 October 2025.
The National Association of State Directors of Special Education published a link apparently aimed at the K-12 Dive story listed earlier in this message; the link was malformed, so it “went 400.” The Council for Administrators of Special Education published a document sometime (the public data are note dated). The document is on Google’s documents server, so I won’t visit it or publicize it here in recognition of the data-harvesting policies and practices of that company. Readers who are willing to sacrifice their privacy may visit the link to CASE and locate the document.