Special Education Is Moving Out of the Department of Education. Your Child's Rights Did Not Move With It.
- 23 hours ago
- 5 min read
The headline lands like a punch. Special education is being moved out of the Department of Education. If you are the parent of a child with an IEP, you read that and your stomach drops, because it sounds like the floor your child stands on is being pulled away.
It is not. Your child's IEP is still binding this morning. The school still owes her every service written into that plan. What changed in Washington is an org chart. What did not change is the law.
What actually happened
On June 16, 2026, the Department of Education announced that it is handing day-to-day administration of special education to the Department of Health and Human Services, and civil rights enforcement to the Department of Justice. The office that oversees IDEA, known as OSERS, goes to HHS. The Office for Civil Rights goes to the DOJ. This is the largest step yet in an effort that has run for more than a year, following earlier agreements that had already scattered more than a hundred programs across other agencies. Only Congress can actually close the department, so the administration is moving its functions out piece by piece until there is almost nothing left inside.
Your child's rights did not move
A reorganization of who administers a program does not repeal the statute behind it. IDEA, Section 504, the ADA, and FERPA are all still fully in force. The rights your child holds under those laws do not pack up and leave when a federal office moves. A senior department official said it plainly: no agreement can alter the rights students with disabilities are guaranteed under federal law.
That is not me being optimistic. It is how the law works.
What stays the same right now
Your child's IEP and 504 plan. Both are written and enforced at the school and district level, and they remain in effect exactly as written.
Your procedural safeguards under IDEA. Prior written notice, the consent requirements, access to records, and the right to an independent evaluation are spelled out at 34 CFR Part 300, and none of it changed.
Your path when the school falls short. You raise it with the team. You put it in writing. If that does not work, you file a state complaint or request a due process hearing. Those enforcement tools stay in your hands even if federal oversight weakens.
So I am not going to tell you to panic. I am also not going to tell you this is nothing, because it is not nothing.
Where the real risk sits
The concerns are about execution, not rights.
A medical model instead of an educational one. IDEA is an education law. It lives in classrooms, IEP meetings, behavior plans, and the question of whether your child learns alongside her peers. HHS is built around medicine. Advocates across the field, from The Arc to COPAA, have warned that running special education through a health agency invites a mindset where disability is treated as a diagnosis to manage rather than a child to teach. A former division director from the special education office called it a model fundamentally at odds with how schools work, and pointed out that HHS does not have the relationships with school districts that the Education Department spent decades building.
A system split in two. Special education now sits at HHS while civil rights enforcement sits at DOJ. For a parent, that can mean confusion about where to turn when a child is denied services, longer waits when a child is missing therapy or instruction, and more hoops when a child faces seclusion, restraint, or discriminatory discipline.
Blurrier accountability. OSERS oversees roughly fifteen billion dollars in grants and holds states accountable for following IDEA. Move that out of an education agency and the line of accountability gets blurry, exactly when families need it sharp.
What is still unknown
Most of the operational detail has not been settled. The department admits that staffing and timelines are up in the air, and it has not even decided whether DOJ lawyers will handle these civil rights cases at all. Treat anything you read about how this runs in practice as a work in progress.
The bigger change to watch
Project 2025 proposed turning most IDEA funding into a no-strings block grant handed straight to local agencies through HHS. That has not happened. It would be a far deeper change than relocating an office, and it is the direction worth keeping an eye on. Naming it is not the same as it being here.
What you can do right now
Keep going. Hold the meeting that is already on your calendar. Nothing about this move pauses your child's plan or your next IEP review.
Document everything in writing. A paper trail protects your child no matter which agency answers the phone in Washington.
Learn your rights well enough that no reorganization can make you doubt them. The families who understand the system are the ones the system cannot quietly fail.
The org chart in Washington changed. The ground your child stands on did not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is special education really leaving the Department of Education?
Yes. On June 16, 2026, the Department of Education announced interagency agreements that move special education administration, housed in the office known as OSERS, to the Department of Health and Human Services, and civil rights enforcement, housed in the Office for Civil Rights, to the Department of Justice. Only Congress can formally close the department, so its functions are being shifted to other agencies rather than the agency being shut down outright.
Does my child's IEP still apply if special education moves to HHS?
Yes. IEPs and 504 plans are written and enforced at the school and district level under federal law, and IDEA remains fully in force. A change in which federal agency administers the program does not rewrite your child's plan or remove the school's legal obligation to deliver every service in it.
Did this change my rights under IDEA?
No. IDEA, Section 504, the ADA, and FERPA all remain in effect. Your procedural safeguards, including prior written notice, consent, access to records, and the right to an independent educational evaluation, are set out at 34 CFR Part 300 and did not change because an office moved.
Where do I file a complaint now if my child is denied services?
Your enforcement path is unchanged. Raise the issue with the IEP team in writing, and if it is not resolved, file a state complaint or request a due process hearing under IDEA. You can also still file a civil rights complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, which continues to accept complaints based on disability, race, sex, national origin, color, and age.
Why are advocates worried about moving special education to HHS?
IDEA is an education law about classrooms, IEP meetings, and learning alongside peers, while HHS is organized around a medical model. Advocates including The Arc and COPAA worry that moving special education to HHS invites treating disability as a diagnosis to manage rather than a child to teach, weakens federal oversight of states, and separates special education from civil rights enforcement, which now sits at the Department of Justice.
Will federal funding for special education change?
Not by this move alone. OSERS oversees roughly fifteen billion dollars in IDEA grants, and that funding continues for now. The change worth watching is a Project 2025 proposal to convert most IDEA funding into a no-strings block grant distributed through HHS, which has not been enacted and would be a much deeper change than relocating an office.