The U.S. Department of Education has laid off nearly the entire staff making up the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) on Friday. This represents about $15 billion in special education funding serving 7.5 million children with disabilities in the US, according to NPR. All employees except top officials and support staff were reportedly cut amid the ongoing government shutdown. They received news of the layoff via email on Friday and were told they would remain employed until Dec. 9.
What is the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services?
The OSERS is the office handling programs that support students with disabilities and help assist families in need of guidance. It also ensures states comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975. The civil rights law requires states to provide special education services for children until the age of 2 and helps fund these services.
“This is decimating the office responsible for safeguarding the rights of infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities,” a department employee told NPR.
“I don’t think people realize how many calls we get from parents and families every day,” another employee said.
Some department employees say the layoffs violate a civil rights law
“Based on multiple reports from staff and their managers, we believe that all remaining staff in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), including the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Rehabilitative Services Administration (RSA), have been illegally fired,” Rachel Gittleman, the AFGE Local 252 union’s president, told NPR.
Some employees who were laid off say the mass layoff is in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and should require an act of Congress.
“Now, the federal government is out of compliance with federal disability law,” an employee said.
“I’m fearful. I think it’s good for states to know there’s federal oversight and that they’ll be held accountable,” an official added. “The concept of leaving special education up to states sounds great, but it’s scary. What happens if one state decides to interpret the law one way, but another state disagrees and interprets it differently?”
The Trump administration wants to leave education up to the states
So far, the Trump administration has cut about 4,200 jobs at the Department of Education with the goal of ultimately shutting down the department.
“I would like to see even more funding go to the states for that,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in an interview with CNN in March, while adding that access to education for students with disabilities is a priority.
She added that oversight of IDEA funding could be safeguarded under the Department of Health and Human Services instead, according to USA Today. The move would require an act of Congress.
“The system is designed to happen at the school level, with oversight from the district, with oversight from the state, and then with oversight [from] the federal level,” Glenna Wright-Gallo, who served as assistant secretary in the OSERS office between 2023 and 2025, said. “Now we’re losing that checks and balances system.”