Education Department Moves Special Ed to HHS and Civil Rights to DOJ

The U.S. Department of Education announced on June 16, 2026 that it is handing operational responsibility for two of its most consequential non-financial aid functions (services for students with disabilities and enforcement of federal civil rights laws as it relates to education) to other federal agencies.

Under four new interagency agreements, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will support the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), while the Department of Justice (DOJ) will take on civil rights enforcement, student privacy protection, and desegregation training and advisory services.

The move is the latest and largest step in an effort that has been going on for more than a year. It follows 10 earlier partnerships that shifted programs to the Departments of Labor, the Interior, State, the Treasury, and HHS. The move is clear: the Trump administration wants to shrink the footprint of the Education Department without waiting for Congress to formally eliminate it.

What Actually Changes (And What Didn’t)

The single most important point for families to understand is what these agreements are not. They are not a repeal of any law. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Title IX, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) all remain fully in effect. The legal rights students and parents hold under those statutes do not change because an agency reorganizes who administers a program.

The agreements are built on a legal tool called an interagency agreement, authorized under the Economy Act (31 U.S.C. § 1535). That statute lets one federal agency contract with another to perform services. As the Department’s own fact sheet notes (PDF File), these agreements have been used by both Democratic and Republican administrations, including a 2022 agreement under the Biden administration directing the Department of Labor to administer certain First Step Act grants.

An interagency agreement cannot, on its own, transfer or end a statutory duty that Congress assigned to the Education Department.

That distinction matters because the Department says it is keeping its legal authority. In the civil rights partnership, the agencies state that “the enforcement of federal civil rights laws will continue without interruption, and ED will retain all statutory authorities and functions.”

On special education, the Department says the partnership “does not alter” the federal government’s obligation to enforce disability rights laws.

When the administration moved six education programs to four other agencies in late 2025, we pointed out that interagency agreements do not change the underlying law — responsibility for these programs still legally sits with the Department of Education, and shuffling the operational work to another agency does not save money, improve outcomes, or improve accountability on its own.

And all of these moves also track with what we expected last year.

Special Education Moves To Health And Human Services (HHS)

Under the HHS partnership, the agency that already oversees Medicaid, Head Start, and a range of disability programs will support the administration of OSERS, the office that houses IDEA and vocational rehabilitation. The stated goal is to reduce bureaucratic friction and better coordinate the disability services that are currently split across two government departments.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon framed the partnership around outcomes. “Through our partnership with HHS, we will align federal services with the goal of strengthening academic outcomes and supporting individuals with disabilities so that they can achieve greater independence, key life skills, and meaningful employment,” she said.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. added that the two agencies would “cut bureaucratic barriers, better align federal resources, and deliver more effective support for individuals with disabilities and their families.“

Along with the announcement, Secretary McMahon recorded this video message to parents:

Some context on scale: IDEA marked its 50th anniversary in 2025, and more than 8 million infants, toddlers, and students with disabilities are served under the law today — more than double the number when it passed in 1975.

The administration has paired the reorganization with a funding pitch, including a proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget request for what it describes as a historic increase of more than half a billion dollars above the prior special education appropriation, and a recently announced $144 million boost for state and local IDEA programs.

Important note that those figures are administration claims as the FY2027 budget is a request to Congress, not enacted funding.

One conceptual concern advocates have raised is philosophical as much as administrative. IDEA treats disability as an education matter (guaranteeing a free appropriate public education) not as a medical condition to be treated. Housing its administration inside a health agency makes that boundary worth watching, even though the statute itself is unchanged.

Civil Rights Enforcement Moves To Department Of Justice (DOJ)

The Department of Justice will also take on a coordinating role in civil rights enforcement alongside the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (ED-OCR). The two agencies have actually shared a coordinated enforcement agreement for more than two decades, so the partnership builds on existing collaboration rather than inventing it from scratch.

Many actions you see against colleges and even individual fraudsters come from this partnership.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the partnership aims to “build a stronger, more coordinated civil rights enforcement system — one that makes clear that discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or ability will not be tolerated in our schools.”

DOJ will also partner with ED on student privacy under FERPA and on the training and advisory services that help school districts develop desegregation plans, an authority rooted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

How This Will Impact Families Moving Forward

For parents and students, the practical answer right now is: handle issues the same way you always have. 

The Department’s civil rights fact sheet is explicit that the partnership “will not impact students, parents or families who believe they have experienced discrimination.” Anyone who believes discrimination occurred in an education program can still file a complaint with ED-OCR, which retains authority to investigate complaints based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. Complaints can be filed electronically through the OCR website, and OCR staff remain available on the status of pending cases.

The same continuity applies to special education. IEPs and 504 plans are written and enforced at the school and district level under federal law. A change in which federal agency provides back-office administration does not rewrite your child’s plan or remove a school or district’s legal obligations.

The open questions are about execution and oversight, not rights. Splitting closely related functions across agencies can fragment coordination, slow guidance, and blur lines of accountability when something goes wrong.

Whether families experience faster, more responsive service or new bureaucratic seams will depend on how these agreements are implemented and that will take months or years to become clear.

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