On July 22, 2026, special education professionals and advocates warned that moving special education functions out of the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) would be detrimental to students with disabilities. Citing the likelihood that the move would cause disparities in services across the states and reduce accountability measures, along with the risk that the guidance received from one agency and the guidance received from another agency would make it difficult to impossible to administer all applicable laws, were examples given expressing great concern. For instance, the recently announced interagency agreement between the USDE and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would move key responsibilities for special education formula and discretionary grants, compliance and monitoring, and annual state performance determinations to HHS. However, the USDE, would maintain statutory responsibility for the functions being outsourced.
CEC and CASE officials also say the level of funding proposed in the FY 2027 budget is not enough to address the needs in the field, such as severe teacher shortages, growing demands for student mental health services, and year-over-year increases in special education enrollment. In 2024, about 8.2 million students ages 3-21 qualified for IDEA Part B school-aged services, which was a 3.8% increase compared to the year before.
For more details from K-12 Dive, click here.