You may have seen worrying posts or news stories in recent days about layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education, including reports that most of the staff in the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) have been let go.
On October 15th, a federal judge temporarily blocked the mass firings of federal employees initiated during the government shutdown — for now. Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California issued the hearing, stating, “It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs." She added, “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
What happens next? As USA TODAY reports, “The reversal was the first step in what will likely be a long, protracted set of legal proceedings. Next, the judge will consider whether to issue a more permanent ban on the firings while she considers their legality. The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to successfully appeal such bans related to other Education Department firings, but those cases didn't involve a government shutdown.”
They report that the next court hearing on the matter is expected within the next two weeks. While this is an important step, it doesn’t guarantee the employees will keep their jobs. Staff could remain gone while the courts sort things out.
For parents of children with disabilities, this kind of news hits hard. OSEP plays a major role in ensuring that federal laws like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are implemented correctly across the country. If you rely on your child’s IEP and the protections of IDEA, you might be wondering: what does this mean for us? Will our services stop? Who’s in charge now?
Remember: because IDEA is still the law and the layoffs won’t directly challenge your child’s right to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE), your child’s rights remain protected. That said, parents know it doesn’t always guarantee that services will be carried out or enforced exactly as intended. These layoffs could trickle down and make it harder for your child to get the supports they need. And the bigger question is how and by whom will funding and responsibilities be managed? Without OSEP staff, there’s less federal oversight to step in if states or schools fall behind on IEPs or timelines — which could affect how quickly and smoothly services are delivered.
Let’s take a deep breath and unpack what’s actually happening, and why your child’s rights and services should remain intact.
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is part of the U.S. Department of Education, responsible for the implementation of IDEA, the federal legislation that guarantees a free and appropriate public education to all children with disabilities. OSEP distributes funding to states and other grantees, monitors compliance with IDEA, collects data, and issues guidance to schools and parents.
Reports indicate that many federal employees in OSEP and its parent office, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), received layoff notices as part of a larger government shutdown.
A letter from Veronica L. Coates, chair of SELPA Administrators of California, states, “Reports indicate that nearly all remaining career staff in both OSEP and OSERS below the senior executive level were dismissed in RIF actions that began around October 10, 2025. OSEP provides critical guidance, oversight, and technical assistance that supports the implementation of IDEA, and its absence may disrupt states’ and districts’ ability to provide essential services and supports for students with disabilities. Even when direct support is limited, the sheer presence of OSEP and OSERS carries important meaning for families and the field.”
This has understandably caused confusion and fear because it sounds like the federal agency that oversees special education is disappearing.
Funding is another issue. Dina Kaplan, education attorney with over thirty years of experience in special education law and partner at Vanaman German, tells us, “The first thing that's important to remember and to know right now is that IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that provides for our children's IEPs, is still good law. It hasn't been overturned.” However, “The funding is going to be the big question. So even if the law [IDEA] is still in effect, there's all kinds of threats to funding. “ She adds that while this school year is unlikely to be heavily affected by funding issues, changes could start to appear next year, possibly after the start of the calendar year. “There's a lot of moving parts right now that we're trying to keep an eye on and follow along and see where they're going,” she says.
The current situation is tied to a federal government shutdown, which began October 1, 2025, after Congress failed to approve funding bills for the new fiscal year. Normally, when a shutdown occurs, government employees are furloughed — temporarily off work but not fired. That is what happened during shutdowns in 1995-96, 2013, and 2018-2019. This time, the administration issued permanent layoffs to reduce federal spending called Reduction in Force (RIF) notices.
“The layoffs will reduce the department’s special education office from roughly 200 workers to about five,” says Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc; “Families rely on those teams to make sure states and schools are following complex disability laws.”
These decisions may be part of a broader plan to restructure or reduce the role of the U.S. Department of Education, possibly shifting certain functions (like special education oversight) to the Department of Health and Human Services. The administration has signaled plans to close down the federal Department of Education (ED) and move responsibility of special education to HHS. In March, half of the ED staff were fired, with some temporarily reinstated through a legal action, with the court finally determining that the administration could reduce its workforce in this way. But Congress and the courts still have a say in how federal laws are carried out, and the administration cannot shift responsibility for enforcing IDEA to HHS or to the states without the agreement of Congress.
Despite the government shutdown, last week the Senate confirmed two top positions at the ED: Kimberly Richey to lead the Office of Civil Rights and Kirsten Baesler, North Dakota state education chief and a proponent of “school choice,” as assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education. While it may seem strange to fill leadership positions without any workers to direct, this does suggest the administration may replace the laid-off workers with staff aligned to their policy rather than to close the ED entirely.
Several civil rights legal organizations, including the National Women’s Law Center, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, opposed Richey’s nomination. During her time as Acting Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), Richey rescinded 72 guidance documents related to special education policy, labeling these documents “outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective.” These documents included vital information surrounding due process for parents and children, least restrictive environment (which ensures students with disabilities are taught alongside their peers), and guidance on parental consent to use public benefits.
You might be wondering how all this will affect your child and their education. While most of the daily work of implementing special education happens at the state and local level — for example, in California, the California Department of Education’s Special Education Division, your regional Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA), and your local school district — there are a number of ways in which the absence of OSEP could impact your child’s education.
Federal IDEA funding only covers a small portion of school special education costs — around 10%. Most years, only a tenth of the money spent on special education across the U.S. comes from OSEP. Most of this money is normally paid ahead of time, so states and schools already receive part of this funding in the late summer.
The concern right now is that depending on how long the shutdown lasts, the next round of federal special education funding due October 1 will not be paid to the states. Schools and administrators are concerned because the people who are responsible for disbursing funding to states and grant holders appear to have been fired, and if there is no one in the office to write the check, they are concerned that their funding will not arrive on time to pay teachers and related service providers.
If those payments are delayed, states and districts could face funding gaps that trickle down to local schools. In practice, if faced with a 10% drop in special education funding, schools are still legally required to provide every service listed in your child’s IEP. In this situation, most local school boards usually have to shift money from their general education budget to cover special education costs. This could result in staff cuts or shortages, changes in ADA adjustments, 1:1 aides, extracurricular activities, etc.
We’ll know if these federal funds are being withheld when the shutdown has ended.
With the recent layoffs and ongoing funding cuts at OSEP, some parents are wondering how this might affect their child’s IEP services. While IDEA is still in effect, reduced funding can create pressure on districts — and that pressure might show up as pushback on certain services or supports.
So, can an IEP team use budget deficits as a reason to limit or cut services or supports? Kaplan says technically, no: “It's not supposed to be based on budget. I always go back to the IEP [which should be] individualized for what your child's needs are. Some children have a lot more needs that are a lot more expensive than others, and I do think that at some point we're going to see pushback because of funding cuts, but I'm not sure what that's going to look like at this point. So right now, keep focused on the IEP and what your child's needs are, and know that the law is still in effect and that budget constraints should not be affecting what your child's education provides.”
What should parents look out for? What are some warning signs for parents that a district's response might be about money, even if they say it's not about money? You might hear the school say, “We don't do that. We can't do that,” Kaplan says. “Even though it's something we know they can.” If you’re worried that the school district might cut your child’s services due to upcoming budget deficits, here’s Kaplan’s advice. She says, “Was there an assessment done that showed that your child had a need? If so, and the district is saying, ‘No, we can't do that,’ or ‘We won't do that,’ then the response is, ‘How do we get this done? If it's not something you do, who does it? How do we get it?’”
Disability organizations are concerned because OSERS and OSEP implement IDEA, the Rehabilitation Act (the legislation behind 504 plans), and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. They work to hold schools and states accountable for both special education and vocational rehabilitation services. Every year, states must submit a plan explaining how they’ll provide special education services. OSEP reviews these plans and sends feedback. For families, this oversight helps ensure states are held accountable so children receive the services and supports they need. For example, over several years, the ED found that California excluded many students with disabilities from state testing and placed too many on alternative assessments, and required them to submit a plan to address this.
There have been notable instances in which the ED did more than send a letter.
In Texas (2018), the ED required the state to remove a limit on how many students could get IEPs. This federal oversight allowed thousands of students to regain services.
In Virginia (2021), the ED put the state on a federal monitoring plan, finding that half their IEPs had inadequate goals and many students were missing services.
In New York City schools, the ED stepped in to tackle their complaint process.
History shows that oversight matters. These are just a few of the recent actions that the ED has taken to enforce IDEA, and it has occurred as often in red states as blue states. This work has continued under the current administration, with OSEP releasing reports on several investigations.
Layoffs will remove a key layer of oversight needed to enforce federal education laws. Less guidance often leads to more confusion. As Allison Socol from EdTrust explains, “To actually make that law a reality… there have to be humans… to allocate the funds that go with IDEA, and monitor how states are holding districts and schools accountable.”
OSEP also sends out “Dear Colleague” letters that explain key points in law to all the schools in the nation. Many advocates use these letters in their advocacy as an easy way to explain the best practices for complying with IDEA legislation. For example:
A 2015 letter explains to schools that terms like dyslexia and dyscalculia can be used in IEPs, despite not being a formal eligibility category.
A January 2025 letter (before the new administration) focused on "building and sustaining inclusive educational practices."
While these letters aren’t legally binding, they carry weight and are useful as advocacy tools only because schools know that an OCR or a due process complaint can back them up. The problem now is that some of these letters may carry less weight since the agencies behind them don’t have the staff to enforce them. It’s like showing an OSEP letter in an IEP and being told, “OSEP doesn’t exist anymore.”
Another level of accountability comes through the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which responds to individual complaints from families, providing orders to schools to remedy the discrimination. The ED enforces IDEA through the OCR, giving parents an extra layer of support and accountability. The OCR currently has 129 pending cases under investigation for denial of FAPE by California schools, many of which go back to 2022.
As of right now, Kaplan does not recommend that families file complaints with the OCR “because we don't know what happens to them.” She adds that, “They closed the office in San Francisco, which was our main office, and my understanding was that there were a lot of complaints that were pending at the time that office was closed, and nobody knows what happened to them, whether they were sent to one of the open offices. That's what we assume happened. But obviously they got put to the bottom of the list for that office, right? Because none of the offices were really cranking out the responses to these complaints quickly, so there was always a wait time. So it's really difficult right now.”
Note: while filing an OCR complaint or calling for an OSEP investigation are excellent ways to advocate for schools to follow IDEA, for the most part, the most common way to enforce IDEA is still primarily through a due process complaint with your state administrative hearing office, through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), or through a State Special Education Complaint.
These systems of accountability are administered by the state and are still in place.
Even in times of change, parents are powerful advocates. Here are some constructive steps you can take to stay informed and protect your child’s educational rights.
On October 14, 350 national, state, and local organizations all over the country came together to sign a joint letter condemning the layoff notices and flagging the potential impact on accountability and funding. In a moment of unity, the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), who represent all the special education directors and administrators nationwide, joined with the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. to issue a joint statement of principles and asked other organizations to sign on. These two organizations, usually on opposing sides of a legal case, came together to insist on the need for the guidance, monitoring, and accountability that is needed to enforce IDEA, stating, “The principles underscore the dedication to working together and will be shared with policymakers and the media later this month.”
Please ask organizations to review the seven principles and sign with COPAA and advocates from across the U.S. by Friday, October 17, 2025, or sign as an individual. Undivided is proud to have signed the letter in support of students and families.
Keep your regular meetings, track your child’s goals and progress, and communicate in writing if services aren’t provided as outlined in the IEP. There is no reason to accept changes due to “budget cuts” since IEP services are determined by need.
Misinformation spreads quickly on social media. Follow updates from trusted organizations, like:
Reach out respectfully to your state and federal representatives. Tell them how vital IDEA and OSEP’s work are for your family and your child’s success. Lawmakers listen to stories from real people more than statistics.
NDSC has four action steps to make it easy to to protect students with disabilities:
For 50 years, IDEA has had strong bipartisan support, and we are counting on Congress to ensure these firings are reversed. Use this action alert to contact Congress.
Email comments@whitehouse.gov.
Join with friends and connect with members of Congress and/or their staff in their local offices.
Use social media to connect with members and contact your local media.
You can use this email template from NDSC:
Dear [Senator/Representative _],
My name is [Name], and I’m from [City, State]. I’m writing because I’m deeply concerned about the Administration’s action to fire nearly all staff in the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the US Department of Education. For 50 years, IDEA has had strong bipartisan support, and we are counting on Congress to ensure these firings are reversed. If not, the firings will have a devastating impact on babies, toddlers, and all children with disabilities.
These are the people who make sure states follow the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) — the law that guarantees children with disabilities the right to a free appropriate public education and supports states to better serve children with disabilities and their families. Without OSEP, there will be no federal oversight, no accountability, and no one to make sure that states uphold the rights of children with disabilities and support their efforts to do so.
Before IDEA became law, over a million children with disabilities were prohibited by states from going to school. Don’t allow the Administration to turn back the clock! Please take immediate action to stop these firings and restore the staff who protect the educational rights of children with disabilities.
Sincerely,
[Name]
[City, State]
The uncertainty in Washington, DC is real, but so is the strength of our families and educators. Every day, thousands of teachers, specialists, and administrators across California continue to show up for students with disabilities. We have to ensure that laws continue to be followed and our kids are getting what they need.
Change at the federal level may eventually reshape how oversight is organized, but we must ensure it upholds the decades of progress that families and advocates have fought for. The foundation of IDEA is strong because parents and individuals with lived experience built it through advocacy, persistence, and love. Stay vigilant, and while the headlines may sound alarming, remember:
IDEA remains in full effect. IDEA is a federal law passed by Congress. It doesn’t depend on who’s sitting in a government office and remains in effect unless Congress votes to change it — and there has been no attempt to repeal or suspend IDEA.
Your child’s rights under IDEA have not changed. Your child’s right to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), an Individualized Education Program (IEP), an education in the least restrictive environment (LRE), and your right to due process remain the same today as they were last month.
Your child’s rights are protected by law. Even if federal funding is delayed or reduced, schools that receive federal money must still follow IDEA. That means your child’s services can’t be cut or denied because of budget issues — IEPs are based on your child’s needs, not funding.
State systems are functioning.
As Lindsay Crain, parent of a teenager with multiple disabilities and head of content and community at Undivided, shares, “Families are already stretched thin, as quality control too often falls on parents. If federal oversight disappears, that burden will become even heavier. We’re parents, not compliance officers, yet we’re often the only ones ensuring our kids get the education the law promises. Without federal accountability, who will hold states responsible for systemic failures? Every day, families like mine are bracing for a regression in the rights, supports, and inclusive opportunities we’ve fought decades to secure. My daughter deserves more than good intentions — she deserves a system that’s held accountable to her. We’ve come too far to let our children’s rights become optional again.”
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