Staff overseeing $15 billion in special education funding is gutted by Trump’s shutdown layoffs: report

The Trump administration is slashing staffers overseeing $15 billion in special education funding as part of its effort to lay off government workers amid the federal shutdown.

The reductions in force at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services are part of the estimated 4,000 federal workers that the Trump administration said it will lay off during the government shutdown, a move that experts warn could impact millions of children.

Months earlier, President Donald Trump signed an order to dismantle the Education Department. Now, he’s targeting the department once again while carrying out mass layoffs that he has blamed on the Democrats holding up a deal to fund the government.

"The harm these cuts will cause for the 7.5 million students with disabilities across the country is only beginning," Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, the union representing many Education Department employees, told NPR.

Reports from staffers and their managers suggest these workers were “illegally fired,” Gittleman added.

The Independent has asked the union and the Education Department for comment.

Nearly all office staff were cut Friday when layoffs began, sources told NPR. A court filing from the government estimated that 466 Education Department employees had received a reduction-in-force notice as of October 10, but it’s not immediately clear how many of those worked in the special education office.

December 9 will be workers’ last day, according to the reduction-in-force notice.

The special education office administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a 1975 federal law that ensures free public education for students, through age 21, with disabilities.

The law provides about $15 billion in funds. Every year, each state applies for funds and the special education office determines how much of those dollars each state receives, based in part on each state’s effort to comply with the law’s requirements.

Without this office, "there is no oversight to make sure all children with disabilities get the services they're entitled to,” a staffer told NPR.

It’s not immediately clear who will administer the funds without these staffers.

"If this RIF notice is carried out, the Department of Education can no longer administer [the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act], one source told ABC News. "I have no staff to put the money out and to monitor the states.

Another employee noted that parents concerned about whether their child is receiving appropriate services under the law often call the special education office.

"I don't think people realize how many calls we get from parents and families every day," one worker told the outlet.

In March, the president signed an executive order shuttering the Education Department. At the time, Linda McMahon, the secretary of the department, assured that the special education dollars would be protected.

"We will continue to honor the financial commitments that Congress has made,” McMahon told Congress during her confirmation hearing.