As reported by K-12 Dive, special education and disability rights advocates are strongly defending the federal role in the education of students with disabilities as their concerns grow over a potential shift in how our country conducts special education oversight and support. Although there is still no official plan from the Trump administration to move the duties of special education oversight out of the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) to another federal agency — possibly the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As a result, advocates have sent a flurry of letters and hosted online forums to prevent such a transition.
At a November 4, 2025 town hall, Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said, “This is a public education crisis. When you attack the infrastructure that protects 7.5 million kids, you’re not just weakening special education, you’re weakening public education as a whole.”
While insisting that any programmatic changes at the federal level would not impact or interfere with services being provided to students with disabilities, the Trump administration says it wants to reduce federal interference, make national education programs less cumbersome, and give states more control over how they allocate taxpayer funding, including $15.5 billion under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for services to students with disabilities. However, in a paper published on November 4, 2025, the Center for American Progress said the collective changes the Trump administration has imposed over the past 10 months — such as staff layoffs at the USDE, budget cuts and policy changes — will lead to long-term negative impacts.
To see the main points advocates are emphasizing as they defend the federal government’s special education role, click here.