The United States Department of Education is laying off over 1,400 employees, raising concerns about how the federal government will fulfill its obligations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other regulations. The agency said the layoffs announced late Tuesday will reduce its employment to nearly half of what it was before President Donald Trump was sworn into office in January. Since then, about 600 people have resigned or retired.
The Education Department stated that the cuts will affect all areas of the agency, with some facing considerable reorganization. However, officials said they will preserve statutory programs such as formula funding, competitive grantmaking, and “funding for special needs students.”
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
Trump has promised to shutter the Education Department, and McMahon says the layoffs are a step toward that goal. “What we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat,” McMahon said in a Fox News interview. She stated that employees are being maintained to guarantee that programs such as IDEA, which receives funding from Congress, do not “fall through the cracks.” However, when asked what IDEA stood for, McMahon stated that it was just her fifth day on the job. “I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what it stands for, except that it’s the programs for the disabled and needs,” she said.
Advocates have warned that moves to dissolve the agency may have a massive impact on the nation’s 7.5 million special education students. Every year, the Education Department contributes billions of dollars in federal funding for special education to states, and it is in charge of services ranging from early intervention for disabled children to vocational rehabilitation. The agency is also responsible for protecting the civil rights of disabled students.
Trump and McMahon cannot abolish the Department of Education without an act of Congress, but he can suffocate, strangle, and cut this department off at the knees,” said Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate in Michigan who frequently assists families in filing complaints with the Education Department’s civil rights office. “Secretary McMahon’s proposed reduction of an already insufficient staff is nothing more than a gutting of the institution of public education for America’s children and their parents.”
Even before the firings, Lipsitt said that complaint processing at the agency had slowed significantly since Trump took office. She added that without Education Department enforcement, families frequently have few options when schools fail to satisfy their special education needs. “This downsizing will be the end of any enforcement over the IDEA 2004, Section 504 and the ADA,” according to her. “Parents will be panicked.”
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, which represents millions of educators, projected that reforms at the federal level would trickle down to the classroom. “The real victims will be our most vulnerable students,” she said. “Gutting the Department of Education will send class sizes soaring, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.”
One of the children who could be affected by these layoffs is Danielle Hofmann’s 4-year-old daughter Ember. She participates in a DOE-funded Early Intervention Program in Charleston, South Carolina. Ember is disabled, uses a wheelchair, and receives a variety of services, including physical, occupational, and speech therapy.
Ember’s teachers are also worried according to Hofmann. “Her classroom is probably the most vulnerable population because the Department of Education is there to protect those children with those IEPs and 504s,” she added.
Linda McMahon’s confirmation as head of the US Department of Education, along with the potential of dismantling the Department of Education, will make it even more difficult for disabled students to receive an education. Employee layoffs will only make the problem worse.
Sources:
Diament, Michelle. “As Education Department Slashes Nearly Half Its Staff, Special Ed Worries Mount.” Disability Scoop, Disability Scoop, 12 Mar. 2025, http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2025/03/12/as-education-department-slashes-nearly-half-its-staff-special-ed-worries-mount/31350/.
Kingkade, Tyler, and Adam Edelman . “How Education Department Layoffs Could Impact Students with Disabilities.” NBCNews, NBCUniversal News Group, 12 Mar. 2025, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna196114.
Weber, Claire. “Charleston Parents Worry about Doe Cuts Impacting Special Education Services and Support.” WCIV, Sinclair Broadcast Group, 18 Feb. 2025, abcnews4.com/news/local/charleston-parents-worry-about-doe-cuts-impacting-special-education-services-and-support-donald-trump-elon-musk-doge-department-of-education-wciv-abc-news-4-02-18-2025.