Lawmakers Say Education Department Changes Will Leave Students ‘Lost’

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said the Department of Health and Human Services is too large and too broad to handle the work of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Because of changes by the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education earlier this week, HHS now jointly oversees OSERS with the Department of Education. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has a similar agreement to take on the responsibilities of the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights.

“I thought it was wrong to move OSERS,” said Cassidy, a physician and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee. “A lot of these kids are going to need rehabilitative services to end up right in the workforce, and I just think that they get lost in there.”

Cassidy said if the administration insisted on moving the office, then the Department of Labor would be a better fit for it because of OSERS’ focus on workforce development.

The Trump administration has justified the moves by saying they will cut bureaucratic tape and improve outcomes. These are poised to be some of the most sweeping changes to scale back the role of the Department of Education by transferring the responsibilities, and even some funding, of entire offices to much broader federal agencies.

The administration continues to describe the moves as “partnerships,” and it now has a range of them across different agencies.

But other lawmakers — Democrats — had concerns similar to Cassidy’s, noting that they’d long feared that the administration would take these steps. OSERS is responsible for tracking legislation, implementing policy and supporting programs for people with disabilities of all ages.

“I’ve heard concerns from so many families with loved ones with disabilities,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey), HELP committee member, told NOTUS. “I specifically pushed Secretary Kennedy on this in a previous hearing, because in HHS they’re gutting funding to so many different programs that are for people with disabilities. I don’t trust him. It’s not the right move at all.”

In a statement to NOTUS, the Department of Education defended the moves.

“HHS administers a broad portfolio of programs that support individuals with disabilities across multiple divisions,” Savannah Newhouse, a spokesperson for the department, said in the statement. “As with all ED partnerships, we have been clear that states, students, and families should expect to see no disruptions as ED’s Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services continues to oversee its statutory functions.”

Trump had long floated the idea of moving special education and nutrition programs to HHS, under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. In an unrelated news conference in the Oval Office last year, he said “those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education.” HHS already oversees several programs related to nutrition in public schools and medical schools.

The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which enforces civil rights laws for any school or institution that receives federal funding, has already faced major changes throughout the second Trump administration. The office fired hundreds of employees last year, creating a major backlog of cases, and then recalled many of those employees in December.

A study by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) office concluded that of at least 23,000 pending civil rights cases, only 1% of them were resolved in 2025.

“We’ve already seen less cases being prosecuted, less advocacy for our children. And so we’re very concerned about this move, and we want to see the secretary come before our committee,” Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware) told NOTUS.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has not appeared before the HELP committee since her confirmation hearing in February 2025, and several Democratic members of the committee have been calling on Cassidy to bring her to Congress. Newhouse said McMahon “routinely” updates congressional leadership.

“We’ve seen this Department of Justice is incapable, really. They are used, they’ve been weaponized by this administration. The administration has totally stripped the integrity of other people at that agency,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Maryland) told NOTUS.

The moves this week to outsource more of the Education Department’s responsibilities bring the department to 14 interagency agreements since it started making such changes in November. Previous interagency agreements moved primary and secondary education, Native American education, workforce development, medical accreditation, child care and the federal student loan portfolio.

Education responsibilities are now spread across six different agencies: the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Justice, Interior, Treasury and State.

Unlike Cassidy, other Republican members of the HELP committee seemed less alarmed by the moves.

“Look at it this way: They’re moving them to preserve the programs. I suppose the administration could be calling to shut it down, and so, I don’t have any issue with relocating programs and agencies,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) told NOTUS.