Former US government leaders call for stop to changes for federal special education
What do past assistant secretaries of education recommend legislators do with Trump administration restructuring?
A group of senior former leaders for US federal programs for children and youths with disabilities wrote to members of the US Congress on 13 July 2026 to implore them not to allow efforts by the administration of President Donald J. Trump to modify functions of the Department of Education related to special education. The group—composed of 13 former leaders of ED, inkling assistant and deputy assistance secretaries of education and directors of offices in the agency and consisting of people from presidential administrations from Richard Nixon through Joesph Biden—explained that the signatories see proposed changes in the structure and function of Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, including the Office of Special Education Programs. and the Rehabilitation Services Administration—the very offices that they led during their service.
The letter expressly requests that the legislators
Require the Administration to reverse the interagency agreements transferring OSERS, OSEP, and RSA functions to HHS.
Direct the Department of Education to restore OSERS staffing to levels sufficient to carry out the monitoring, technical assistance, and enforcement responsibilities required by statute.
Hold oversight hearings to reaffirm that only Congress has the authority to relocate functions established by federal statute, and to examine the legal basis for these interagency agreements
The letter was addressed to Representative Robert Aderholt, Senator Bill Cassidy, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Representative Rosa DeLauro, Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Robert C. Scott, and Representative Tim Walberg. Readers of Special Education Today who are constituents of any of these legislators may want to call their offices and explain their views of the recommendations of these authors of this letter.
The signatories for the letter included Glenna Wright-Gallo, Katy Neas, Valerie C. Williams, Laurie VanderPloeg, Alexa Posny, Michael Yudin, Robert Pasternack, Stephanie Smith Lee, Kenneth R. Warlick, Madeleine C. Will, Tom Bellamy, and Edwin W. Martin, Jr. Alert readers of SET will likely recognize that several of these people are members of our community. I personally express my appreciation for their action in leading the effort to maintain the status quo for special education and children with disabilities (and their families).
The National Down Syndrome Congress published a PDF of the letter.
The story has been covered by Kara Arundel of K12Dive on 14 July 2026 under the headline “Former federal officials oppose special education interagency agreement: Pushback grows as House lawmakers consider permanently moving some other Education Department functions to outside agencies.”
Although not explicitly about the special education leaders’ letter, SET readers may also want to review theses sources:
“New GOP Bills Would Permanently Shift Ed. Dept. Programs to Other Agencies” by Alison Klein for Ed Week on 10 July 2026.
“Broad Coalition Urges Congress to Keep Special Education and Civil Rights in the Department of Education” by Jackie Dilworth 23 June 2026 for The Arc.
“Why Moving Special Education Out of the Ed. Dept Will Not Help Students: We shouldn’t redefine special education as a medical service. What to know as it moves to HHS,” an editorial by Jefell Hill published 22 June 2026 on Education Week.
“Takeaways from the Ed Dept-HHS special ed agreement,” by Kara Arundel on 18 June 2026 for K12Dive.
“Trump further guts Education Dept. by shifting oversight of special ed, civil rights,” by Jonaki Mehta and Cory Turner on 16 June 2026 for NPR.
“Trump Breaks Up Education Dept., Prompting Worries Over Civil Rights: Special education programs and the civil rights office will be moved out of the Education Department, the most aggressive move yet by the Trump administration to dismantle the agency” by Michael C. Bender and Dana Goldstein on 16 July 2026 for the New York Times.