Education Department sheds more programs in bid to dismantle agency

Liam Knox, Bloomberg News on Jun 16, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The Department of Education is dispersing its civil rights and special education responsibilities to other federal offices, a major step toward the Trump administration’s goal of dismantling the agency.

Oversight of civil rights in schools will move to the Department of Justice and special education programs will move to the Department of Health and Human Services, officials said Tuesday.

The announcement marks the latest effort by Secretary Linda McMahon toward what she calls her “final mission” of shutting down the Education Department, one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises. The new partnerships follow 10 earlier agreements that shift other responsibilities to different federal agencies. McMahon has also slashed the department’s workforce nearly in half, closed satellite offices around the country, and moved to downsize its headquarters in Washington.

Justice is taking on civil rights enforcement in schools as the agency assumes an increasingly central role in driving the White House’s campaign to reshape education. The DOJ has launched investigations into more than a dozen colleges and medical schools, including at Yale University and Stanford University, accusing them of racial discrimination in admissions.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and distributes billions of dollars in special education and disability funding to schools. Administration officials said that the transfer to HHS will not affect funding levels for disabled students.

Disability advocates have been fighting against shifting special education to HHS since the move was floated last year, arguing that the agency lacks the school-specific expertise to ensure equal treatment for special needs students in the classroom.

The partnership with the DOJ may also shape disability rights enforcement, as many of the office’s civil rights complaints are related to students with special needs.

The moves are coordinated using interagency partnership contracts that the department has previously used to shift other divisions out of the agency, including transferring the federal student aid office — and its $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio — to the Treasury Department.

McMahon said in a statement that the moves “align federal responsibilities with the agencies best positioned to support them, strengthening the effectiveness and impact of critical services.”

The Education Department has historically overseen the enforcement of civil rights law in schools, responding to complaints submitted by students, teachers and staff. However, the Justice Department’s civil rights investigations are typically not tied to grievances from constituents.

A senior administration official said that under the partnership agreement, students may still file complaints with the Education Department. They added that the OCR will refer complaints to the DOJ and issue resolutions based on their findings.

Details of the partnership, including which agency staff will be responsible for addressing discrimination and harassment complaints, are still being worked out, officials said.

Since Trump returned to office, the pace of OCR resolutions has slowed to a crawl as the Education Department laid off hundreds of staff. In the first year of the administration, the agency only resolved two racial harassment cases; in 2024 they resolved 25.

Catherine Lhamon, who served as head of the OCR under former President Joe Biden, said the DOJ’s civil rights mandate is fundamentally different from the Education Department’s, and more prone to political influence.

“You’re moving from a place where staff are experts on things that happen in schools to a world where people are experts on things that happen in courts. It’s acorns and oranges,” she said.