Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) joined U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) , Ranking Member on the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services , and Education Appropriations Subcommittee , Patty Murray (D-Wash.) , Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee , Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) , Ranking Member the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee , and the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding the Trump administration put students first, follow the law, and immediately reverse course on transferring special education programs and civil rights enforcement out of the Department of Education (ED). On June 16, 2026, the Trump Administration announced four Interagency Agreements (IAA) that would illegally move the administration of special education programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) , and vocational rehabilitation programs authorized under the Rehabilitation Act from the ED to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These IAA also transfer fundamental civil rights enforcement responsibility away from ED to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and come as the Trump Administration has successfully worked to undermine core functions and statutory responsibilities of ED, following sweeping and unlawful firings, workforce reductions, and reorganization last year that have already undermined the very goals of the Education Department. At the same time, ED moved almost all programs supporting elementary and secondary education to multiple agencies with limited capacity and expertise administering similar programs. In their letter to ED Secretary Linda McMahon, the Senators outline how the Trump Administration’s latest moves are part of the president’s explicit effort to dismantle ED, threatening key funding, support and services for students, schools, and families nationwide. The Senators also emphasize that wasting time and resources to scatter education programs all over the federal government does nothing to help children and families while only making it more complicated for states and school districts to administer important federal funding. The Senators underscore that isolating special education programs away from all other federal K-12 programs risks isolating students with disabilities themselves: “The administration’s latest attempts to dismantle the Department of Education through the four Interagency Agreements (IAA) announced June 16, 2026, are outrageous and put the educational outcomes of students and their rights in the classroom at risk…The administration’s actions fly in the face of what Congress has required, directly undermine every child’s right to a quality public education in this country, and must be immediately reversed.” Despite announcing this illegal transfer of programs, the Trump Administration has refused to provide information regarding what office within HHS will carry out special education programs, leaving teachers, students, and families with even greater uncertainty about where to turn to ensure their rights are protected. The Senators emphasize that burying special education programs in a sprawling HHS with significant other responsibilities, instead of at a Department of Education a fraction of the size solely focused on education, will jeopardize outcomes for students with disabilities. “Special education and vocational rehabilitation are education programs. Any attempt to move these programs to HHS would fundamentally alter the purposes of these services, upending fifty years of work that took place at the federal, state, and local level to improve educational and employment outcomes for people with disabilities. It appears the administration values its backward goal of dismantling ED over the faithful execution of the law and improving opportunities and outcomes for children, youth, and students with disabilities,” the Senators continued . “This lack of forethought demonstrates how little concern it has for students with disabilities and their learning. The administration couldn’t possibly know that this will be in the best interest of children and families because it doesn’t even know where and how these programs will be administered in the future.” The most recent reauthorization of IDEA passed by Congress reiterates that the responsibility for administering the law is clearly vested with ED, along with various duties vested in the Secretary of Education, including allotting funds to States and carrying out oversight among other activities. However, the law does not contain any provisions that would permit ED to offload its responsibilities for special education or vocational rehabilitation programs to another agency. Additionally, the annual bipartisan appropriation bills approved by Congress do not provide affirmative authority to ED to transfer special education funding or vocational rehabilitation services to HHS, nor ED’s civil rights enforcement responsibilities to DOJ CRT. The Senators reiterated that Congress appropriates annual funding to ED to help States and local educational agencies carry out programs and ensure children, youth, students, and families are served in accordance with federal law: “We have a simple demand: follow our nation’s education and appropriations laws as Congress wrote them to protect students’ most basic right to a quality education. More than 80 education, disability, parent, and civil rights groups have vocally opposed the recent IAAs and other departmental changes. We call on this administration to immediately cease implementing these IAAs, fully implement IDEA and the Rehabilitation Act as Congressionally directed, and take immediate action to strengthen civil rights enforcement—instead of burying students’ cases behind more bureaucracy. Our students and their families deserve nothing less.” Meanwhile, the transfer of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) out of ED also comes as the Trump Administration has failed to uphold the federal government’s obligations to protect students from unlawful discrimination. In 2025, ED’s OCR reached the fewest resolution agreements in over 12 years and failed to reach a single resolution agreement related to sexual harassment, sexual violence, racial harassment, discriminatory school discipline, or the seclusion and restraint of children with disabilities, with over 12,000 pending cases that were under investigation by OCR at the start of this Administration. Despite this backlog, the Trump Administration is attempting to illegally transfer OCR’s functions to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (CRT), which has lost an estimated 75% of its civil rights staff attorneys since January 2025, making it wholly unequipped to handle the over 23,000 complaints OCR receives and evaluates annually. The Senators also raised concerns that while OCR is currently required to evaluate every single complaint it receives, DOJ CRT can pick and choose the cases it takes to court. Under this IAA, students whose complaints are not prioritized by DOJ CRT may never see their rights vindicated. In addition to Senators Welch, Baldwin, Murray, and Sanders, the letter is cosigned by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Angus King (I-Maine), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Chris Coons (D-Del.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). Read and download the Senators’ full letter to Secretary McMahon. ###