“Do people realize that this is happening to this population of vulnerable students?” one education department leader told ABC News.
“[If] there’s no staff, who the heck is going to administer this program? That’s the absurdity of this,” the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, added.
The department leader stressed that several employees within the offices of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitative Services Administration — the two divisions that make up the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) — were cut over the weekend.
The agency enforces the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the law creating a free and appropriate education for children with disabilities, and funds special education services to the tune of around $15 billion.
The education department leader called the layoffs to this division “ridiculous,” contending that families of special needs students will be harmed.
“There is a risk that the money to educate their children will not be given to the state, and that their access to support and advocacy for their children with special needs will no longer continue because there is no staff available to administer IDEA,” the department leader noted.
The education department is the smallest cabinet-level agency in the U.S. government.
At the start of the Trump administration, the department had just over 4,000 employees. After buyouts, early retirements, voluntary separations and a Reduction in Force, the agency was shrunk nearly in half earlier this year.
Multiple sources said several departmental offices have now been gutted again, including the offices of Communications and Outreach, Elementary and Secondary Education and other divisions.
A lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal workers, said the education department RIFed 466 employees – or at least another 20% of the agency’s workforce — during the shutdown.
Rachel Gittleman, the president of AFGE Local 252, believes all remaining offices in OSERS below the senior executive services level were RIFed Friday.
“The RIF of OSERS and OESE doubles down on the harm to K-12 students and schools across the country, which are already feeling the impacts of a hamstring Office for Civil Rights (OCR) from the March RIF,” she said.
News of the shutdown RIF was surprising for many within the special education offices. The employees who lost their jobs are distraught, according to the source familiar with the RIF.
Education department sources also told ABC News that the job cuts could hamstring states.
“If this RIF notice is carried out, the Department of Education can no longer administer IDEA,” one source said. “I have no staff to put the money out and to monitor the states.”
Critics of the Trump administration’s plans to shutter the agency told ABC News that preserving IDEA is one of their top concerns. It is a statutory program mandated by law and has bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon, whose mission is to return education power and responsibilities to the state and local level, has attempted to assuage concerns by stating that the department would continue to fully fund and carry out all of Congress’ statutorily required programs.
But the education department leader told ABC News that the latest RIF flies in the face of McMahon’s pledges.
“She’s consistently said she’ll protect IDEA,” the source said. “Well, now, this is not protecting IDEA if they’re getting rid of the team,” adding, “What is she doing with IDEA? Who’s going to administer it?”
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
President Trump has said the Health and Human Services Department under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will handle the special needs and nutrition programs for students, but that transfer has not happened yet.
Meanwhile, the education department leader predicts remaining staff within the special education division will not be equipped to take on the responsibility of those who were fired.
“That’s like taking a surgeon and telling them you’re now a brick layer or telling a brick layer you’re now a surgeon: It’s like you just don’t do that,” the leader said. “It’s just so absurd.”
