In March 2025, the first weeks of the new administration brought a flurry of announcements about the future of the U.S. Department of Education.

On March 3, shortly after her appointment, Linda McMahon released a statement titled “Our Department’s Final Mission,” signaling an intent to return education authority to states and reduce what she described as federal “bureaucratic bloat.”

On March 11, the Department initiated a reduction in force affecting nearly half its workforce.

On March 20, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order aimed at closing the Department altogether. The following day, he stated publicly that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would take responsibility for “special needs.”

Since those March statements, subsequent developments suggest that these proposals are not merely rhetorical. Reportingin early January 2026 indicates that senior administration officials have continued to discuss relocating special education oversight out of the Department of Education and have begun taking preliminary steps consistent with that goal.

In meetings with disability advocates late last year, the Secretary of Education reportedly stated that she intends to move all Department offices to other agencies and close the Department, while acknowledging that no final decision or agreement had been reached regarding where special education oversight would land.

Advocates have pointed to new hires within the federal disability apparatus as possible groundwork for such a shift. At the same time, neither agency has provided details or a timeline—underscoring a critical distinction between signals of intent and legal authority.

Taken together, these developments understandably raised alarms—particularly for families of students with disabilities. But despite the turbulence, one point remains clear: Nothing about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has changed—yet. And that is not a matter of discretion. It is a matter of law.

What the Law Actually Says

IDEA is a federal statute. It cannot be eliminated, rewritten, or reassigned to another agency without congressional action. The same is true of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) itself, which was created by Congress in 1979.

Just as important, IDEA and USDOE are statutorily interconnected. When Congress established the USDOE through the Department of Education Organization Act, it simultaneously required the creation of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) within the Department.

IDEA, in turn, establishes the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) within OSERS and designates OSEP as: “[T]he principal agency in the Department for administering and carrying out” IDEA and related programs. The statute further assigns responsibility for administering IDEA funds to the Secretary of Education.

This structure is not incidental. It reflects Congress’s deliberate judgment that special education is an education function, not a healthcare one. Given this statutory design, the President cannot unilaterally transfer IDEA oversight to HHS. Doing so would require Congress to amend multiple federal laws. That is why several lawsuits have already been filed—and more are expected—challenging recent efforts to dismantle or disable the Department’s work.

Why Proposals to Move IDEA to HHS Are Not Neutral

Legal barriers aside, proposals to move IDEA to HHS raise deeper concerns about how disability itself is understood in public policy.

HHS administers Medicaid and Medicare, regulates food and drugs, and oversees public health and social services programs. Its core orientation is clinical and medical. IDEA’s core purpose is educational. Transferring IDEA to HHS would risk reviving a medical model of disability embedded in earlier eras of disability policy—one that treats disability primarily as a diagnosis to be managed rather than recognizing students as learners with potential. That framing has consequences.

Historically, it has justified segregation, lowered expectations, and exclusion from general education settings. Congress enacted IDEA precisely to reject that approach.

IDEA rests on the principle that students with disabilities are general education students first, entitled to access the same academic content, credentials, and post-school opportunities as their peers, with appropriate supports. Recasting special education as a health or social services function undermines that premise.

Why the U.S. Department of Education Is Uniquely Positioned to Enforce IDEA

Keeping IDEA at the USDOE is not simply symbolic. It is operationally essential.