Writer by Sanjoy gorh 4.00 pm published
On June 16, 2026, the Trump administration announced its most consequential move yet in its campaign to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education: stripping the agency of its two most sensitive functions — special education oversight and civil rights enforcement — and handing them to agencies that have never run a school system. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will now oversee programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), while the Department of Justice (DOJ) will take over enforcement of civil rights law in America’s classrooms.
For the roughly 7.5 million U.S. students who receive special education services, and for the families, teachers, and disability rights advocates who have spent decades building the legal infrastructure that protects them, the announcement landed as a gut punch. Disability rights organizations, congressional Democrats, and education law experts have already labeled the move not just disruptive, but unlawful.
This article breaks down exactly what changed, why the administration says it’s doing this, what critics — including the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) — are saying, and what it could mean for students with disabilities and their families going forward.
What Actually Changed at the Department of Education
The Education Department has two offices at the center of this controversy. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) administers IDEA, the federal law guaranteeing children with disabilities a free, appropriate public education tailored to their needs. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigates discrimination complaints involving disability, race, sex, and national origin in schools nationwide.
Under the new arrangement, OSERS responsibilities move to HHS, while OCR’s enforcement functions move to the Justice Department, which will also take on responsibility for protecting student privacy. Administration officials described the changes as “partnerships” between agencies rather than an outright transfer of legal authority, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon framed the move as a matter of efficiency. According to McMahon, the goal is to scale back federal involvement where it slows schools down while strengthening oversight in the areas where it matters most.
Two political appointees overseeing special education and rehabilitative services told advocacy groups in a letter that the federal government would continue enforcing special education law without interruption, and that the change was about realigning responsibilities, not abandoning them.
Critics see it differently. This restructuring is not an isolated event — it builds on more than ten earlier interagency agreements, dating back to November 2025, that have already shifted various Education Department programs to agencies including Labor, State, and HHS. Combined, these moves have stripped away the vast majority of the department’s original functions, even though Trump has not secured the congressional approval that would be required to formally close the agency. Trump campaigned on eliminating the Education Department entirely, arguing education should be returned to state control, and this restructuring effectively achieves much of that goal through executive action rather than legislation.
Why Critics Say the Move Is Illegal
The central legal objection is straightforward: Congress, not the president, created OSERS and OCR as part of the Department of Education’s statutory structure, and only Congress can move or eliminate them. House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro called the action a “disgraceful violation of the law,” noting that Congress had explicitly funded the Education Department earlier in the year without granting the administration authority to relocate its core programs. DeLauro and other Democrats argue that shifting civil rights enforcement to the Justice Department, under leadership tied to the administration’s broader political priorities, risks turning civil rights investigations into a tool that targets rather than protects students and schools.
Education law attorneys have raised similar concerns from a more technical angle. Jill Siegelbaum, a former Education Department attorney now in private practice, said she believes the OCR transfer is unlawful and warned that Justice Department lawyers may lack the specialized expertise needed to interpret the nuances of education discrimination law that determine case outcomes. She argued the department is prioritizing political messaging over the practical needs of students.
This isn’t the first time the administration’s approach to OCR has run into legal trouble. Over the past year, the Education Department closed more than half of OCR’s regional offices and attempted to lay off over half of its staff, only for courts to intervene and force the agency to keep more than 200 OCR employees on paid administrative leave for months. Senate Democrats, including Senator Patty Murray, have argued the administration is spending its energy on reorganizing bureaucracy rather than improving outcomes for students, while the union representing department employees has warned the changes will create chaos for the families who rely on these offices most.
Critics Warn of Impacts to Student Services
Disability rights groups are not objecting on procedural grounds alone — they’re warning about real-world consequences for kids who depend on these systems working correctly and quickly. The Arc of the United States said the plan disregards federal law that places special education oversight within the Education Department, and warned it will make it harder for students with disabilities to access services, resolve discrimination complaints, and hold states accountable under IDEA, a law that has protected students for fifty years.
The core concern from advocates is fragmentation. Special education and civil rights protections were never meant to operate as silos — a student with a disability may need accommodations under IDEA, protection from discrimination under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and accessibility guarantees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), often simultaneously. When the offices responsible for enforcing these overlapping protections sit inside the same department, families have one place to turn. Splitting that work between HHS and DOJ means families and school officials may now have to navigate multiple federal bureaucracies with different missions, different cultures, and different enforcement philosophies just to resolve a single problem.
Advocates are especially troubled by moving special education oversight to a health agency rather than an education agency. Evaluating whether a school district is properly implementing a student’s individualized education program is fundamentally an educational judgment, not a medical one, and disability advocates argue HHS staff are not equipped to make those calls. There’s also a symbolic dimension critics see as damaging: framing disability through a health agency reinforces the outdated idea that disability is primarily a medical condition to be treated, rather than a civil rights and educational equity issue.
Families of Students With Disabilities Oppose the Decision
For parents already navigating Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, due process complaints, and the day-to-day work of advocating for a child with a disability, the prospect of a more fragmented federal system is alarming. Families who currently file complaints with a single Education Department office may soon need to determine whether their concern falls under HHS’s jurisdiction, DOJ’s, or some shared arrangement between the two — at the exact moment they need clear answers fastest.
Disability rights organizations have emphasized that confusion itself is a form of harm. Even if every legal protection technically remains in place, delays caused by bureaucratic restructuring can mean a child goes months without a needed service, or a discrimination complaint sits unresolved while agencies sort out jurisdiction. Families who already wait extended periods for schools to comply with federal law now face additional uncertainty about which federal agency actually holds responsibility for enforcement.
The DREDF Statement: “This Isn’t Reform, It’s Abandonment”
Few responses to the announcement were sharper than the one issued by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. In a statement titled “This Isn’t Reform, It’s Abandonment,” DREDF condemned the restructuring “in the strongest possible terms,” arguing the administration is dismantling the Education Department piece by piece without congressional authorization and without regard for the students who will bear the consequences.
DREDF’s statement makes four central arguments. First, the move is illegal, since Congress wrote OSERS and OCR into the Education Department’s statutory structure and never authorized their removal — calling an unauthorized transfer a “partnership,” the organization argues, doesn’t make it lawful. Second, the move betrays fifty years of disability rights history; IDEA, Section 504, and the ADA exist because disabled people organized and fought for inclusion after being routinely excluded from public education. Third, shifting special education to a health agency reframes disability as a medical condition rather than a civil rights and educational matter, sending what DREDF calls the wrong message to students who are students first, not patients. Fourth, because OCR also protects students from discrimination based on race, sex, and national origin, scattering its enforcement work into an already-stretched Justice Department disproportionately endangers students who sit at the intersection of multiple protected categories, including disabled students of color and disabled LGBTQ+ students.
DREDF Executive Director Michelle Uzeta put it directly, saying the change forces families to assemble their rights from disconnected corners of government rather than receiving the coordinated enforcement the law was designed to guarantee. The organization, which has worked on disability rights litigation and policy for more than four decades, said it is calling on Congress to intervene immediately and is urging states and school districts to continue following IDEA, Section 504, and the ADA regardless of which federal agency claims administrative responsibility.
Importantly, DREDF was careful to reassure families directly: existing legal rights have not changed because of this announcement. Children are still entitled to a free appropriate public education, IEP meetings still must happen, and schools are still legally required to provide accommodations and protections against discrimination. What has changed is which federal office stands behind those rights — and how quickly help may arrive when something goes wrong.
IDEA, Section 504, and ADA Enforcement Going Forward
In the near term, families shouldn’t expect their child’s existing IEP, 504 plan, or accommodations to disappear overnight — those protections exist in statute, not in the org chart of a federal agency. The practical risk advocates are flagging is slower response times, less specialized expertise applied to complaints, and weaker coordination between the agencies now sharing responsibility for overlapping protections.
Legal challenges are likely. Congressional Democrats, including a group led by Senator John Hickenlooper, have already sent formal letters demanding the administration explain its legal authority for the move and provide documentation of the steps taken so far. Whether courts ultimately block the transfer — as they did with earlier attempts to gut OCR’s staffing — may determine how lasting these changes turn out to be. In the meantime, disability rights groups are urging both vigilance and continued advocacy at the local level, since school districts remain bound by federal law regardless of which agency oversees enforcement.
What Families Can Do Right Now
Advocates recommend several concrete steps for families of students with disabilities while this situation develops. Keep attending IEP and 504 plan meetings as scheduled, and continue documenting every communication with your school in writing. Don’t assume your child’s existing services or protections have changed — they haven’t, regardless of which federal agency technically oversees enforcement. If you believe your school is not complying with the law, file complaints through the normal channels and keep copies of everything you submit. Contact your members of Congress directly; constituent calls and letters are one of the most direct ways to pressure lawmakers to assert oversight authority over executive agency restructuring. Finally, stay connected to established disability rights organizations like DREDF, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, and your state’s Parent Training and Information Center, all of which are tracking these changes closely and can offer updated guidance as the legal situation evolves.
The Bottom Line
The transfer of special education oversight to HHS and civil rights enforcement to DOJ marks one of the most significant structural changes to federal education policy in decades — accomplished not through legislation, but through executive reorganization that critics argue Congress never authorized. Whatever the administration’s stated efficiency goals, disability rights advocates, education law experts, and congressional Democrats agree on one point: fragmenting enforcement across agencies with no education-specific mission creates real risk for the millions of students and families who depend on a coordinated, accountable federal system. As DREDF and other groups push Congress and the courts to intervene, families are being urged to keep asserting their rights at the local level — because while the federal org chart may be changing, the underlying legal protections for students with disabilities have not.
FAQ
Q1.Did the Trump administration shut down the Department of Education?
Not officially — only Congress can formally close a federal department. However, the administration has transferred the vast majority of the department’s functions, including special education and civil rights enforcement, to other agencies through executive action, achieving much of the same effect without legislation.
Q2.Which agency now oversees special education?
The Department of Health and Human Services has taken over oversight of programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a function previously housed in the Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
Q3.Which agency now handles civil rights complaints in schools?
The Department of Justice has taken over enforcement of civil rights law in education, including complaints related to disability, race, sex, and national origin discrimination, a responsibility previously held by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.
Q4.Have students’ legal rights under IDEA, Section 504, or the ADA changed?
No. These laws remain in effect and schools remain legally obligated to comply with them. What has changed is which federal agency is responsible for enforcement, which advocates warn could slow down response times and create confusion for families.
Q5.this restructuring being legally challenged?
Yes. Congressional Democrats have demanded documentation of the administration’s legal authority for the move, and disability rights organizations and legal experts argue the transfer is unlawful because Congress never authorized it. Past attempts to cut OCR staffing have already been blocked by courts.
