This post continues ATPE’s Teach the Vote coverage from Oct. 9 and Oct. 17 on the federal government shutdown and its far-reaching implications for public education.  

Although the federal government has reopened, the restoration of funding did not resolve the instability created during the shutdown. Instead, the reopening revealed a federal education system that remains deeply unsettled and an administration intent on accelerating a sweeping internal restructuring that could permanently weaken, or even dismantle, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). Despite the end of the shutdown, which included a deal to rehire all RIFed federal employees, Trump-appointed Education Secretary Linda McMahon is continuing to advance plans that shift major components of the department elsewhere without the normal congressional oversight that typically governs such changes. 

New reporting by The Washington Post, combined with a Nov. 18 DOE press release, shows the extent of this shift. According to the reporting, several key DOE offices, including the Office for Civil Rights, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Office of Postsecondary Education, may be transferred out of the department through contractual arrangements designed to bypass statutory requirements. Federal law requires these programs to stay within DOE, yet the administration is pursuing workarounds to relocate them to other parts of the federal government. 

What are the new DOE interagency “partnerships”? 

The press release outlines six new interagency agreements that move large operational pieces of the DOE to other cabinet agencies. The administration describes these agreements as an effort to “break federal bureaucracy,” “streamline education functions,” and “return education to the states.” These partnerships represent a significant shift in federal education governance and would redistribute responsibilities across multiple agencies. 

The six new partnerships announced by DOE are: 

1. DOE & Department of Labor – Elementary & Secondary Education Partnership: The Labor Department will assume a larger role in administering federal K–12 programs, including grant competitions and technical assistance, and integrate them with workforce initiatives while DOE retains oversight. 

2. DOE & Department of Labor – Postsecondary Education Partnership: The Labor Department will also take on administration of many Higher Education Act programs, aligning them with labor-market needs and existing workforce development strategies. 

3. DOE & Department of the Interior – Indian Education Partnership: The Interior Department will oversee a broader portfolio of Indian Education programs, moving responsibilities across K–12, higher education, career and technical education, and vocational rehabilitation. 

4. DOE & Health and Human Services – Foreign Medical Accreditation Partnership: HHS will assume responsibility for oversight of foreign-medical-school accreditation, a role previously held by DOE. 

5. DOE & Health and Human Services – CCAMPIS Partnership: HHS will now manage the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program, shifting student-parent child-care grants into an agency already overseeing similar funding streams. 

6. DOE & Department of State – International Education and Foreign Language Studies Partnership: The State Department will administer Fulbright-Hays and related international education programs, embedding them more directly into foreign policy and national security priorities. 

The potential impact on special education funding and services 

The department frames these agreements as administrative improvements, but they reflect a much larger reorganization that mirrors the structural destabilization seen during the shutdown. Those temporary closures allowed the administration to enact permanent reductions in force, leaving hundreds of positions unfilled across DOE and HHS, including many of the senior specialists responsible for IDEA compliance and enforcement. With Texas still under a federal corrective action plan for long-standing IDEA noncompliance, the loss of knowledgeable federal staff poses serious risks to districts that depend on timely monitoring, guidance, and oversight. 

While the new DOE press release does not explicitly reference IDEA or special education, its sweeping restructuring strongly implies significant consequences for federally supported special education services. By shifting major DOE functions into other agencies, particularly HHS, and accelerating the decentralization of federal education oversight, the administration is laying the groundwork for IDEA monitoring, enforcement, and guidance to move outside DOE entirely. This shift comes on the heels of mass layoffs that eliminated much of the federal special education oversight workforce, leaving districts with fewer points of contact and slower compliance support. Taken together, the restructuring signals a likely weakening of federal special education protections, increased delays in monitoring and reimbursements, and greater reliance on states to ensure IDEA compliance at a time when Texas, as previously mentioned, is already under a federal corrective action plan. This creates a deeply uncertain environment for districts across the country, but especially for districts in Texas, as they prepare annual reporting, reimbursement requests, and monitoring submissions for the 2025–26 school year. With both agencies weakened, it remains unclear who will be responsible for ensuring lawful implementation of federal special education obligations or how compliance issues will be resolved. 

The stakes are high for Texas educators and district leaders 

Even with federal funding restored, the operational fallout continues. Civil rights investigations, grant processing, and federal monitoring have not fully resumed. Many districts are still waiting on IDEA and Title I reimbursements. There is widespread concern about how DOE will manage more than $78 billion in discretionary funding, including over $15 billion for IDEA, without the staffing necessary to administer these programs effectively. McMahon has repeatedly argued that schools continued to function during the shutdown and therefore the department is not necessary, but this characterization overlooks the behind-the-scenes federal work that ensures equitable access, civil rights protections, and reliable administration of funds. 

The combined effect of mass layoffs, proposed office relocations, and the six new partnerships points toward an ongoing effort to restructure or significantly diminish the federal role in education without congressional authorization. For Texas educators and district leaders, the stakes are high. Every major federal education function, from civil rights enforcement to special education oversight to the administration of grants, may soon involve new agencies, altered timelines, and unfamiliar compliance structures. 

ATPE will continue monitoring these developments as courts will most likely be asked to consider the legality of the administration’s actions and Congress evaluates whether further intervention is needed. Educators should consider communicating with their congressional representatives to express concerns about the impact of dismantling DOE functions and the potential consequences for students, districts, and federal protections.