Education Dept. Overhaul
Trump-era Education Dept. changes spark disability family concerns over enforcement shifts.
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The Trump administration has announced a sweeping restructuring of the Education Department, moving special education oversight to the Department of Health and Human Services and shifting school civil rights enforcement to the Department of Justice AP. For the roughly 7.5 million children with disabilities in U.S. schools, the changes arrive as families are already waiting 26 months or more for federal action on bullying and discrimination complaints that once took six to twelve months to resolve Newsday.
The moves fulfill President Trump's longtime goal of dismantling the Education Department, which he has called a 'bureaucratic monster.' Critics say the restructuring does not fix a broken system — it breaks what little is left of it AP.
How the Education Department Was Quietly Hollowed Out
The dismantling happened step by step. In March 2025, mass layoffs cut the department's workforce nearly in half — from roughly 4,133 employees to about 2,183 The Arc. The Office for Civil Rights shrank by about 40%. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services lost nearly all staff below senior executive level Center for American Progress.
On June 16, 2026, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced the final step: interagency agreements sending special education to HHS and civil rights enforcement to the DOJ PBS News. McMahon said the changes 'align federal responsibilities with the agencies best positioned to support them.' Legal experts warn only Congress can formally close the department, but advocates say it has been functionally liquidated Urban Institute.
Families Are Stuck With No Clear Place to Turn
Nicole May, an Ohio mother, filed a bullying complaint on behalf of her daughter in 2024. More than two years later, she has not received a finding Newsday. Her case is one of many that stalled as federal staff levels dropped. Cases that once took six to twelve months now stretch past two years.
Some families are now taking cases directly to state courts or other agencies. But attorneys warn that individual wins no longer produce system-wide fixes. Without a functioning federal Office for Civil Rights, there is no one to order a whole school district to change its practices ClickOnDetroit.
Moving Special Ed to a Health Agency Alarms Advocates
Critics say the biggest red flag is placing special education inside HHS — a health agency. Disability rights groups argue this treats children's disabilities as medical conditions to manage, not as differences in how kids learn. Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc, said 'students with disabilities don't experience school in agency silos' The Arc.
HHS will now manage over $15 billion in annual IDEA grants — the federal money that funds special education services. Legal experts question whether a health agency has the expertise to calculate and distribute education-specific funding Chalkbeat. Senator Patty Murray called the move a betrayal, warning that vulnerable children's rights are being handed to an agency never designed to run a classroom The 19th.
DOJ Takes Civil Rights Role With a Very Different Approach
The DOJ's Civil Rights Division, now led by Trump appointee Harmeet Dhillon, will take over school-based discrimination cases Chalkbeat. The old Office for Civil Rights focused on working with school districts to reach agreements and fix problems systemwide. The DOJ, by contrast, is built for litigation — taking people to court, not brokering local fixes.
Shiwali Patel of the National Women's Law Center said the restructuring 'systematically dismantles the infrastructure that protects students' civil rights' Higher Ed Dive. Several groups are already suing, arguing that an executive order cannot legally close a department created by an act of Congress in 1979. Those cases are still working through the courts Urban Institute.
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