The US Department of Education discontinued funding for projects it had previously supported through the Office of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. The department’s news pages do not have an announcement of the cuts (as of 12:00 AM 13 September 2025). Although ED apparently provided data to members and staff of key committees in the US Congress, I have not been able to identify the projects that were defunded.
In a story for 8 September 2024 in Ed Week, Mark Lieberman wrote, “Trump Canceled Millions for Special Education Teacher Training. What’s Next?” Mr. Lieberman reported that 25 special education projects would not be continued for the coming fiscal year (beginning in October 2025). Mr. Lieberman explained that
Department officials told the 25 canceled grantees that each of their projects “is inconsistent with, and no longer effectuates, the best interests of the federal government.” In each case, the cancellation notices cite language from the grantees’ application materials that references diversity, equity, inclusion, racism, and related concepts.
Without explicitly naming the projects, Mr. Lieberman wrote that they included (a) four state deaf-blind technical-assistance centers, (b) there Community Parent Resource Centers, (c) four State Personnel Development Grants, (d) 13 doctoral training grants to universities, and (e) one technical assistance center that helps states collect data about disproportionality. Mr. Lieberman reported that, “in addition to the 25 … cancellations, it also intends to continue 464 IDEA Part D grants.”
Journalists covering the story have focused on some of the projects.
On 10 September Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards of ProPublica reported that “Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push: Citing concerns about DEI, the U.S. Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. “How low can you go?” one advocate asked. “How can you do this to children?”
On 12 September 2025, Kuna Tavalin of the Council for Exceptional Children published a blog post1 explaining that nine additional projects funded under the Rehabilitation Services Administration (an arm of ED’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services) received discontinuation letters. Read Ms. Tavalin’s post, “Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Cuts Grants that Support People with Disabilities.“
Bryce Dole and Kathryn Styer Martínez of Oregon Public Broadcasting reported on 11 September 2025 that “Trump administration cuts funding to Oregon disability programs: Organizations across Oregon received notice from the U.S. Department of Education that they’d lose hundreds of thousands of dollars .” One of those programs supports education for children who are deaf and blind. The Oregon DeafBlind Project is located and operated by Columbia Regional Inclusive Services.
Collateral defunding
Discontinuing the funding of these programs comes at about the same time as ED’s end to funding of some Hispanic-Serving Institutions that are among the higher education institutions such as tribal colleges, historically black colleges, other minority-serving institutions. In its announcement of 10 September 2025 entitled “U.S. Department of Education Ends Funding to Racially Discriminatory Discretionary Grant Programs at Minority-Serving Institutions,” ED said,
Today, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) announced that it will end discretionary funding to several Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) grant programs that discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas. This action follows the U.S. Solicitor General’s determination in July that the Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) programs “violate the equal-protection component of the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause,” and that the Department of Justice would not defend them in ongoing litigation.
I did not find a list of those institutions that are losing funding in the announcement or elsewhere on ED’s Web site. However journalists Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff of the Washington Post identified some schools affected bu the cuts to minority-serving institutions in their 10 September 2025 article, “Education Department ends some aid aimed at minority college students: The Education Department is withholding millions of dollars in grant funding appropriated by Congress for colleges that serve large populations of minority students. Also, see Michael C. Bender’s article of 10 September 2025 for the New York Times, “Education Department Ends Grant Funding Worth $350 Million for Minority-Serving Colleges: Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the money supported programs that the administration believes unfairly support minority students.”
Many of the programs serving deaf-blind children are part of grant-funded programs coordinated by the Helen Keller National Center at Helen Keller Services.
Earlier in 2025, other funds for programs for deaf and blind individuals were cut. On 27 February 2025, for example, Helen Keller International, which promotes international nutrition efforts, published an appeal for funding that noted that it had “received termination notices for all of Helen Keller’s US government-funded projects” due to cuts to the US AID funds.
For related content on Special Education Today, see “DEI and teacher education” (15 August 2025), “Loss of research funding” (14 August 2025), “Medicaid curs and our kids” (27 July 2025), “Cuts to US education research: update” 12 February 2025), and US ED research contracts cancelled” (11 February 2025).
Footnote
Fun fact: Ms. Tavalin’s post is in that other “Special Education Today.”