AFT’s Weingarten on Education Department’s Move of Special Ed and Civil Rights Offices to Other Agencies

WASHINGTON-AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the federal Department of Education announced it was moving two of its most crucial functions to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice:

"Today's moves are a dagger to the heart of what the Department of Education was always supposed to do: protect the most vulnerable. The administration's goal may be ideological and political, but this reckless decision will have dire, real-world consequences. Students with disabilities who require individual, tailored attention will see their futures bound up in a department run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-the same man who believes vaccines cause autism.

"And those children whose civil rights are violated-by antisemitism or Islamophobia, or simply for having special needs and not receiving an accommodation-will now be handled by an unqualified, under-resourced department focused on prosecuting President Trump's political enemies.

"Congress-the only body that can legally take such actions-has refused to follow the whims of the White House when it comes to abolishing the Education Department. And parents, educators, students, and the disability and civil rights communities are rising up-and will fight in every way possible to reverse this in the courts, at the ballot box and in the court of public opinion."

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.