On March 21, 2025, President Trump announced that federal special education operations, currently spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE), will move to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He also said he would move federal student loan and school nutrition program oversight from the USDE to the Small Business Administration.
The USDE oversees the distribution of about $15.4 billion for supports to about 8.4 million infants, toddlers, school children, and young adults with disabilities. The USDE’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilatives Services (OSERS) and Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) also conducts monitoring, provides technical assistance to states and school districts, and holds states and school districts accountable for compliance to IDEA.
Despite saying that tremendous results from the move will be experienced, what is unclear is how HHS will handle the increased workload and whether staff will require training — or whether remaining staff that handled those areas will be transferred if still employed at USDE.
Chad Rummel, executive director of the Council for Exceptional Children, said in a statement that, “IDEA is an education law, not a healthcare law, and belongs at the Department of Education.”
National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues released a statement that said, “This is not a minor bureaucratic reorganization — it is a fundamental redefinition of how our country treats children with disabilities.” The National Parents Union is a 1.7 million membership organization with more than 1,800 affiliated parent organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. “We must call this what it is: an effort to dismantle protections, disempower families, and turn education into a battleground for profit-driven insurance corporations,” Rodrigues said.
For more from K-12 Dive, click here.