美国教育部周二宣布了特朗普政府解散该机构的重要一步——将特殊教育服务和民权责任分别移交给卫生与公众服务部(HHS)和司法部(DOJ)。
通过四项机构间协议，HHS将吸收特殊教育和康复服务管理局(OSERS)的办公室，而司法部将负责该机构的公民权利监督。教育部长琳达·麦克马洪表示，这些协议将联邦政府的责任与最有能力支持他们的机构联系起来。
然而，该部在教育方面的主要作用是为残疾学生服务和处理公民权利投诉。教育是地方一级的职能，联邦政府只管理大约10%的全国公立学校资金。
倡导者担心转移办公室将影响数百万学生和家庭，包括700万人，他们通过《残疾人教育法》(IDEA)获得约150亿美元的资助，该法为残疾儿童提供免费和适当的教育。
然而，教育部高级官员告诉记者，OSERS将继续其法定职能“没有中断”，并遵守联邦法律。
“学生不会失去任何权利，包括接受免费、适当的公共教育的权利，”一名高级部门官员说，并补充说，“任何协议都不能改变联邦法律赋予残疾学生的权利。”
这些举措让一些家长和倡导者感到沮丧，他们担心HHS的员工缺乏解决有学习障碍儿童需求的专业知识。一名教育部官员在接受美国广播公司采访时表示，HHS的员工在一种医疗模式下工作，这意味着他们负责为国家的健康和福祉服务。该部门官员认为，残疾学生应该得到教育示范机构的支持。
全国家长联盟主席Keri Rodrigues告诉ABC新闻，这些公告给有特殊需求的家庭制造了更多的混乱。
“我们不希望OSERS被派往HHS，”Rodrigues强调说。“我们的孩子需要获得免费和适当的公共教育。他们不需要医疗化，就像，这是过去50年来一直这样做的原因。”
“我们不需要我们的孩子被医学化，我们需要他们接受教育，”她补充道。
在去年春天的国会听证会上，HHS部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪主张特殊教育项目应该回到HHS。
甘乃迪说:“其中一些项目应该一直在HHS的权限之下。”。“这才更有意义。他们是与健康相关的项目，而不是特别受教育的项目，我们在HHS有许多平行的项目，可以从彼此的协同作用中受益，”他说。
唐纳德·特朗普总统在2024年竞选关闭该机构-选择前WWE首席执行官麦克马洪担任这项任务的先锋-并签署了一项行政命令，将教育责任从联邦政府归还给各州。
她利用其广泛的权力进行了十多次IAAs，该部门称这是与伙伴机构共同制作的常用工具。该部门协议于3月份将近1.7万亿美元的学生贷款组合送交财政部，此前与内政部、劳工部和国务院达成了类似的协议。
密歇根州教育委员会主席蒂姆·沃尔伯格(Tim Walberg)对这项将学生放在第一位并减少官僚主义的宣布表示赞赏。
沃尔伯格在一份声明中说:“特朗普政府正在兑现其承诺，通过调整教育部的规模来改善学生的成绩，修复国家破碎的系统。”。
Department of Education moving special education and civil rights responsibilities
The Department of Education Tuesday announced a major step in the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the agency -- moving special education services and civil rights responsibilities to the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice (DOJ), respectively.
Through four interagency agreements (IAA), HHS will absorb the Offices of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Administration (OSERS) while the Justice Department will be responsible for the agency's civil rights oversight. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the agreements align federal responsibilities with the agencies best positioned to support them.
However, the department's main roles in education are to serve students with disabilities and handle civil rights complaints. Education is a local-level function and the federal department only administers roughly 10% of public school funds nationwide.
Advocates worry transferring the offices will impact millions of students and families, including 7 million people who receive around $15 billion in grants through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the law creating free and appropriate education for children with disabilities.
However, senior Department of Education officials told reporters that OSERS will continue its statutory functions "without interruption" and in compliance with federal law.
"Students will not lose any rights, including their right to a free, appropriate public education," a senior department official said, adding, "No agreement can alter the rights that students with disabilities are afforded under federal law."
The moves have frustrated some parents and advocates who worry HHS employees lack the expertise to address the needs of kids with learning disabilities. HHS employees work under a medical model, which means they are charged with serving the nation's health and wellness, according to a Department of Education official who spoke with ABC News. The department official argued that students with disabilities should be supported by an education model agency.
National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues told ABC News the announcements create more chaos for families with special needs.
"We don't want OSERS to be sent to HHS," Rodrigues stressed. "Our kids need access to free and appropriate public education. They don't need to be medicalized, like, there is a reason why this has been done this way for the past 50 years."
"We do not need our kids to be medicalized, we need them to be educated," she added.
In a congressional hearing last spring, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. contended that special education programming should return to HHS.
"Some of these programs should have always been under HHS purview," Kennedy said. "It just makes more sense. They're health-related programs rather than particularly educated programs, and we have many parallel programs at HHS that can benefit from synergies from each other," he said.
President Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 on closing the agency -- choosing former WWE CEO McMahon to spearhead the mission -- and signing an executive order to return education responsibilities from the federal government to the states.
She used her broad authority to conduct more than ten IAAs that the department has said is a frequently used tool made with partner agencies. The department agreements sent the nearly $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department in March and previously made similar agreements with the departments of Interior, Labor and State.
Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, R-Mich., applauded the announcement for putting students first and cutting bureaucracy.
"The Trump administration is following through on its promise to fix the nation's broken system by right-sizing the Department of Education to improve student outcomes," Walberg said in a statement.
