In a cramped White House meeting room, a terse memorandum slid across the table: the Education Department will lose its Office of Special Education and Disability Services and its Office for Civil Rights by the end of the fiscal year.
The directive, signed by President Donald Trump on June 12, 2026, instructs the department to transfer those functions to the Department of Health and Human Services and the newly created Office of Disability Policy under the White House Office of Public Liaison.
“We are streamlining federal bureaucracy and putting program delivery directly into the hands of agencies that can move faster,” the memo reads, echoing language from earlier administration moves to shrink the Education Department.
What the shift entails
Currently, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigates complaints of discrimination in K‑12 schools and enforces Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Office of Special Education and Disability Services (OSEDS) administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), distributing roughly $14 billion annually to states for special‑education programs.
Under the new plan, OCR’s enforcement staff will be reassigned to the Department of Justice, while OSEDs’ grant‑making authority will move to HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, according to a senior source familiar with the internal briefing.
Why does this matter?
Students with disabilities could see funding formulas change overnight, potentially delaying services for children who rely on individualized education plans. Parents of children with autism, for example, already report wait times of six to nine months for evaluations; any disruption may extend those delays.
Civil‑rights advocates warn that moving OCR away from an education‑focused agency could dilute expertise on school‑based discrimination, making it harder to address bullying, segregation and inequitable resource allocation.
“The education context is essential for enforcing civil‑rights law in schools,” said a spokeswoman for the National Education Association in a phone interview. “Removing the office from the department that knows schools best is a short‑sighted move.”
Political backdrop
The shift follows a series of actions by the Trump administration to shrink the Education Department, previously highlighted in AP News and Politico analyses. Earlier this month, the White House announced that the agency’s overtime budget would be slashed by 30 %, and several educational programs faced possible consolidation.
Republican lawmakers have praised the move as a cost‑saving measure. Rep. Jim Jordan (R‑OH) tweeted, “Cutting waste and returning power to the states where local control works best.” Democrats, however, argue that the action jeopardizes federal protections for vulnerable students.
RFK Jr., a key advisor to the White House on disability policy, will now oversee the new Office of Disability Policy, according to Mother Jones.
What happens next?
The transition will require congressional approval of budget reallocations and the issuance of new regulations by HHS and the Justice Department. A notice in the Federal Register is expected within the next 30 days, and public comment periods could stretch the process into early 2027.
Stakeholders – from school districts to advocacy groups – are already mobilizing. The National Association of State Directors of Special Education is planning a briefing with the Education Department’s acting secretary next week.
For families, the key question is whether their children’s services will continue uninterrupted. As the federal landscape reshapes, school districts may need to renegotiate contracts with private providers, and parents may need to file new complaints through different channels.
Stay tuned as the Education Department shift unfolds; the next few months will reveal whether the administration’s promise of “more efficient” oversight translates into real‑world outcomes for students across the nation.
Related reading: politics and education policy.