ED RIFs update: # 2

What additional news is there about 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 second 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

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What are we learning about the reduction in force of special education staff at the US Department of Education? Here’s our latest¹ (updated as of 14 October 7:30 PM.

Updates

• DLD mailed an announcement DLD Call To Action: Restore Office of Special Education Programs 13 October 2025 about 4:25 PM

We are reaching out with an urgent call to action.
This past weekend, the U.S. Department of Education implemented sweeping layoffs that have effectively dismantled two cornerstone offices: the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). These agencies are vital to upholding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and ensuring that students with disabilities receive the services and protections they are entitled to under federal law.

• Appearing on PBS Newshour on 13 October 2025 (video released at 6:35 PM), Laura Meckler (of The Washington Post) discussed the reduction in force action’s effects on special education. This link to “Trump’s shutdown firings hollow out special education office” will provide audio from the interview of Ms. Meckler by Goeff Bennett, one of the show’s hosts. A video clip is available from the PBS Newshour (on YouTube) channel.

• Writing for USA Today on 14 October 2025 at 12:09 PM, Zachary Schermele published “Education Department layoffs threaten special ed system, advocates warn: From 504 plans to IEPs, there are many protections in place at the local level to ensure students with disabilities get the resources they need. But federal oversight is a key piece of that puzzle.” (This is an update of a post from 13 October 2025):

WASHINGTON – Families and educators across the country were plunged into a state of uncertainty over the weekend after the federal Education Department laid off practically every staffer in the government’s special education division.

Nearly the entire Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, including the Office of Special Education Programs, was let go, according to agency employees and their union.

Employees in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, many of whom work to protect students with disabilities from discrimination, also were laid off, the union said. The divisions included offices in the District of Columbia, Seattle and Atlanta.

• For AP News of 13 October 2025 at 5:44 PM, Collin Binkley wrote “Education Department layoffs hit offices that oversee special education and civil rights enforcement”

A new round of layoffs at the Education Department is depleting an agency that was hit hard in the Trump administration’s previous mass firings, threatening new disruption to the nation’s students and schools in areas from special education to civil rights enforcement to after-school programs.

The Trump administration started laying off 466 Education Department staffers on Friday amid mass firings across the government meant to pressure Democratic lawmakers over the federal shutdown. The layoffs would cut the agency’s workforce by nearly a fifth and leave it reduced to less than half its size when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.

The cuts play into Trump’s broader plan to shut down the Education Department and parcel its operations to other agencies. Over the summer, the department started handing off its adult education and workforce programs to the Labor Department, and it previously said it was negotiating an agreement to pass its $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department.

• The Times of India staff on 14 October 2025 at 20:00 IST wrote “Special education staff slashed in US Department of Education layoffs: Here’s wby students and schools are a risk,”

Recent US Department of Education layoffs have slashed special education and civil rights staff, leaving programs like OSEP and OCR critically understaffed. Federal grant management, compliance oversight, and student support risk disruption. With nearly half the agency cut, educators and students face uncertainty, threatening progress in literacy, mental health, and equity initiatives nationwide.

• Writing for Ed Week on 13 October 2025 (no publication hour) , Mark Lieberman and Brooke Schultz reported, “Ed. Dept. Offices Will Be Virtually Wiped Out in Latest Layoffs: The agency that lost half its staff earlier this year will see a fifth of remaining employees depart under a new reduction in force”:

A small team overseeing special education programs at the U.S. Department of Education was thrilled when Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced in May one of her chief priorities would be improving literacy through evidence-based practices. It seemed to align perfectly with another initiative the 20-person division, a part of the office of special education programs, had been planning to bolster achievement among different student populations by the end of 3rd grade.

But the onslaught of cuts at the Education Department that had severed nearly half the agency’s staff by March through layoffs and buyout offers made it all but impossible to pursue it. Though the office of special education programs was mostly spared in those layoffs, its staff still shrank, as did the offices that supported its work.

On Friday, the office was dealt another blow: The 20 people remaining on the team that had been planning the achievement initiative were among the approximately 466 staff members cut from the Education Department as part of a governmentwide reduction-in-force during the ongoing federal government shutdown, according to court filings in a case challenging the firings.

• Over on Blavity News for 13 October 2025 (no time stamp), Kyra Alessandrini published, “Trump’s Department Of Education Just Wiped Out Its Special Education Office, Laying Off Almost All Staff”:

The U.S. Department of Education has laid off nearly the entire staff making up the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) on Friday. This represents about $15 billion in special education funding serving 7.5 million children with disabilities in the US, according to NPR. All employees except top officials and support staff were reportedly cut amid the ongoing government shutdown. They received news of the layoff via email on Friday and were told they would remain employed until Dec. 9.

• For the Indian Financial Express of 14 October 2025 at 11:03 (IST), Aditi wrote, “Trump lays-off nearly half of special education staff under US Department of Education as shutdown continues: US Education Department faces 20% staff cuts during shutdown, risking key programs”:

As the US government shutdown looks likely to enter a third straight week, reports say nearly 750,000 federal employees have been furloughed. The Education Department is now facing another round of layoffs. According to the Associated Press, the department was already one of the hardest hit because of the previous mass firings, and these new cuts will further destabilise it. From special education to civil rights enforcement and after-school programs, students and schools across the country could feel the effects.

On Friday, the Trump administration began laying off 466 Education Department employees. These cuts reduce the workforce by nearly 20%. The agency will now operate with fewer than half the staff it had when President Trump took office in January 2021. The department had roughly 4,100 employees when Trump took office. Following the new layoffs, that number will drop below 2,000. Earlier layoffs in March had already halved the department’s size. Some employees were, however, rehired shortly after.

The administration is reportedly planning to dismantle the department and redistribute its functions to other agencies. Earlier, over the summer, adult education and workforce programs were transferred to the Department of Labor, and discussions are ongoing to move the department’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department.

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 13 October 2025 at 2:00 PM:

• On 12 October 2025 at 5:00 AM:

Footnote

1. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of reports. I reviewed dozens more than what is shown here, particularly many from quite local outlets (e.g., television stations) but didn’t include them in this list.

2. 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.