'Outrageous betrayal': Trump admin accused of breaking the law to harm disabled students

The Trump administration accelerated its assault on the US Education Department on Tuesday by announcing that the agency’s work defending civil rights and students with disabilities will be placed under the authority of other federal departments, a move that teachers, Democratic lawmakers, and advocacy organizations condemned as illegal and disastrous for vulnerable children.

Linda McMahon, the billionaire education secretary who has enthusiastically advanced the destruction of her own agency, announced the transfer of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services—which oversees the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—to the US Department of Health and Human Services, headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Additionally, the Justice Department will oversee the work of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, McMahon said, claiming the changes would “break down the bureaucratic barriers and strengthen the coordination of resources to improve programs that serve infants, toddlers, children, and adults.”

Critics argued the moves would do the opposite, scattering crucial programs across departments that lack the expertise and resources to fulfill the education offices’ mandates, ultimately depriving children and their families of support.

“Moving IDEA out of the Department of Education is not an administrative adjustment—it is an attack on the educational and civil rights foundation of the law,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association. “It would drag us backward by treating disability as a medical issue instead of an educational right and by unraveling decades of progress. The Department of Education is the only federal agency with the expertise, infrastructure, and specialists needed to protect students’ rights and ensure they receive the services they are guaranteed.”

“Relocating the Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice as part of this scheme would further erode federal oversight and endanger disability-rights enforcement nationwide,” Pringle added.

The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said that “moving special education to HHS and civil rights enforcement to DOJ would split apart the offices responsible for making disability rights real in schools, leaving families chasing answers across the federal government instead of getting accountability from one education agency.”

“Moving IDEA oversight into HHS pushes students with disabilities toward a medical model, where disability is treated as a diagnosis to manage instead of a natural part of human life,” said Katy Neas, the group’s CEO. “When that mindset drives education decisions, students are more likely to be segregated, underestimated, or treated as separate from the school community.”

“It’s an outrageous betrayal that undoes decades of hard-won progress for students.”

The changes that McMahon announced Tuesday are part of the Trump administration’s effort to completely dismantle the Education Department, which cannot be legally abolished without congressional approval. The Washington Post noted that the newly targeted offices were among the last Education Department segments to “outsource major functions,” underscoring that the administration’s assault “has advanced far more than most observers predicted would be possible.”

In addition to displacing agency functions, the Trump administration has gutted the Education Department’s staff, firing nearly half of its workers in what opponents say is an obvious effort to decimate public education.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the transfer of critical functions out of the Education Department is unlawful, “usurping the power of the purse while the Republican majority stands idly by, forfeiting their authority as a co-equal branch of government.” DeLauro pointed to language in a 2026 appropriations measure enacted earlier this year that prohibits the Education Department from transferring responsibilities to other federal agencies without congressional approval.

“This is a disgraceful violation of the law,” DeLauro said Tuesday. “By moving special education from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services, the administration is taking us back to a dark period in American history. One where individuals with disabilities were viewed not as whole persons deserving of an education, but as medical patients whose education is not a priority.”

The top Democratic appropriator in the Senate, Patty Murray of Washington, warned that “the Trump administration is abandoning kids with disabilities and its most basic legal responsibility to protect the rights of every student in the classroom.”

“Instead of helping kids get a great education, this administration is spending its time, energy, and taxpayer resources fixated on where employees sit and illegally trying to shutter the Department of Education,” said Murray. “It’s an outrageous betrayal that undoes decades of hard-won progress for students.”