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 responsible for administering the federal programs for special education. I have not yet located precise data about how many people in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services or the Office of Special Education Programs have been dismissed, but preliminary reports make me think that there will only be a small proportion of the staff remaining on duty.
Much of the firmest data about this story comes from a lawsuit filed by the American Federate of Government Employees against the US Office of Management and Budget (Case 3:25-cv-08302-SI on 10 October 2025. The union asked the court to institute a “temporary restraining order.” The US Department of Justice published a reply to this case explaining why the defendants opposed imposing that order; the reply indicated that 466 employees were laid off on 10 October 2025.
Special education layoffs
Here are some of the media stories I have located so far about the reductions related to special education:
Zachary Schermele of USA Today 11 October 2025 at 2:00 PM: “Education Department lays off roughly 20% of its workforce amid shutdown”
The U.S. Department of Education on Oct. 10 laid off over 460 employees, dramatically reducing the workforce of a beleaguered agency that is already struggling to serve students on the heels of massive cuts….
The layoff tally is still climbing. Workers in several other offices, including those responsible for special education funding and higher education, learned of their terminations late Friday and into the weekend, according to their union.
Zachary Schermele of USA Today 11 October 2025 at 3:24 PM: “Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says: The agency cut nearly everyone who works to administer federal funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, one staffer said.”
The U.S. Department of Education fired nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in a wave of new layoffs that began Friday, according to the union representing the agency’s employees.
Without an official estimate from the agency, it wasn’t immediately clear how many people in the division were fired. Yet based on reports from staff and their managers, most employees below the leadership level were part of the workforce reduction, said Rachel Gittleman, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.
Arthur Jones II of ABC News on 11 October 2025 at 5:56 PM: “Special education staff decimated after Trump administration shutdown firings: Sources”:
The nation’s special education services have been significantly impacted after Friday’s mass layoffs within the Department of Education and it could have an immediate impact on children with disabilities, education department sources told ABC News.
“Do people realize that this is happening to this population of vulnerable students?” one education department leader told ABC News.
“[If] there’s no staff, who the heck is going to administer this program? That’s the absurdity of this,” the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, added.
Overall scope of layoffs
Although readers of Special Education Today will be especially concerned about the cuts to cuts in special education and rehabilitative services, the reductions at US ED are only some of those being reported around the government.
Zack Schofield of The Hill on 10 October 2025 at 7:92 PM: “Trump administration fires at least 4.1K federal workers in shutdown layoffs”
The Trump administration laid off more than 4,100 employees Friday amid the ongoing government shutdown, according to a new court filing from the Justice Department.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston had ordered the administration to hand over the information in a lawsuit government unions filed just before the shutdown began.
Hours ahead of the judge’s deadline, the White House budget office announced reductions in force (RIFs) were commencing after days of threats.
Brett Samuels for The Hill on 10 October 2025: “Here are the agencies affected by shutdown layoffs”
The White House on Friday announced it was moving forward with layoffs of federal employees, making good on its threats amid the government shutdown.
Multiple agencies have confirmed their staff have received notices about reductions in force (RIFs). In a Friday filing from the Department of Justice (DOJ), it stated that 4,100 federal employees had been laid off so far.
Joey Garrison, Zac Anderson, Sarah D. Wire, and Francesca Chambers of USA Today on 10 October 2025 at 5:40 PM: “White House says mass layoffs of federal workers have begun. Shutdown updates”
As the government shutdown rolled into Day 10 on Friday, the White House said it would begin mass layoffs of federal workers.
“The RIFs have begun,” Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in a post on X, referring to “reductions in force.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to pursue large-scale cuts to the government’s workforce and programs since the shutdown began on Oct. 10.
Brooke Schultz of Education Week on 10 October 2025: “A New Wave of Federal Layoffs Will Hit the Education Department”:
A governmentwide reduction in force during the federal shutdown will touch an already lean U.S. Department of Education, the Trump administration said Friday, with the department’s office of elementary and secondary education potentially facing some of the most significant cuts.
An Education Department spokesperson Friday confirmed the agency will be subject to the RIF but did not immediately answer how many positions would be part of the downsizing and in which department divisions. A spokesperson from the Office of Management and Budget—whose director, Russell Vought, announced the layoffs in a Friday post on X—called the government-wide reduction “substantial.”
Perhaps it will once again be up to the families of children with disabilities to advocate for services. It’s both sad and alarming that this is occurring
I "like" that you did all this digging, John, not all the layoffs...