More talk about moving US federal special education functions
Might the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services move to another cabinet office?
News sources in the US are reporting renewed stories about federal special education services being moved from the Department of Education to other cabinet departments, particularly the Department of Health and Human Services. As reported by Christina Samuels of the Hechinger Report in “Parents, advocates alarmed as Trump leverages shutdown to gut special education office: Families worry that ‘no one has my back’ if federal oversight is disrupted,” advocates have been concerned about this possibility from early in the current presidential administration. Ms. Samuels reported valuable observations from people with knowledge of the situation in her article.
Writing in The Washington Post for 21 October 2025, Laura Meckler published “Trump administration seeks to move special education to different agency: The move would affect the $15 billion IDEA program and comes as the administration seeks to close down the federal Education Department.”
Here is Ms. Meckler’s lede:
The Trump administration is exploring moving the $15 billion program that supports students with disabilities to a different agency within the federal government as it works to close the Education Department altogether, a department official said Tuesday.
The effort comes on the heels of the agency’s decision this month to lay off the vast majority of employees working on special-education services and months after Education Secretary Linda McMahon talked about moving the program to the Department of Health and Human Services. Her goal is to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promise to close the Education Department and move its functions to other parts of the government.
Ms. Meckler clearly situated her report in the context of fall 2025. As did Ms. Samuels, she referenced the reduction in force at ED that included greater than removing 120 positions from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
Ms. Meckler quoted ED Secretary Linda McMahon as telling a news source earlier that when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was originally enacted (as the Education of All Handicapped Children Act), it was under the an earlier cabinet-level organization called the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Secretary McMahon is correct about that fact, but it merits note that special education was only part of HEW for fewer than 3-4 years before the ED was established and IDEA functions moved there (Martin, 2013). That was ~1979.
Alert readers surely remember that there were discussions of moving parts of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation to HHS in the spring of 2025. Here are link to some of the coverage from March 2025:
Cory Turner for NPR News 21 March 2025: “Trump says Education Department will no longer oversee student loans, ‘special needs’”
Kalyn Belsha and Erica Meltzer for Chalkbeat 24 March 2025: “A big change for kids with disabilities is underway, Trump says. Critics say it’s against the law.”
Arthur Jones II, Cheyenne Haslett, and Molly Nagle for ABC News 21 March 2025: “Trump says student loans, special needs programs will be moved to new departments: It comes a day after Trump said he will shut down the Department of Education.”
Mark Lieberman and Brooke Schultz for Ed Week 28 March 2025: “Why Trump’s Move to Shift Special Ed. to HHS Is Rattling Educators.”
Reference
Martin, E. W. (2013). Breakthrough: Federal special education legislation 1965-1981. Bardolf.