Kelly, Colleagues Demand Trump Halt Illegal Move to Undermine Special Education Civil Rights Enforcement

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding the Trump administration follow the law and immediately reverse course on transferring special education programs and civil rights enforcement out of the Department of Education (ED). These latest moves are part of the Trump administration's explicit effort to dismantle ED, threatening key funding, support and services for students, schools, and families nationwide.

"The administration's latest attempts to dismantle the Department of Education through the four Interagency Agreements (IAA) announced June 16, 2026, are outrageous and put the educational outcomes of students and their rights in the classroom at risk," wrote the senators in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

On June 16^th, 2026, the Trump administration announced four IAAs that would illegally move the administration of special education programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and vocational rehabilitation programs authorized under the Rehabilitation Act from ED to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They also transfer fundamental civil rights enforcement responsibility away from ED to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Despite announcing this illegal transfer of programs, this administration has refused to provide information regarding what office within HHS will carry out special education programs, leaving teachers, students, and families with even greater uncertainty about where to turn to ensure their rights are protected.

"Special education and vocational rehabilitation are education programs. Any attempt to move these programs to HHS would fundamentally alter the purposes of these services, upending fifty years of work that took place at the federal, state, and local level to improve educational and employment outcomes for people with disabilities," wrote the senators. "It appears the administration values its backward goal of dismantling ED over the faithful execution of the law and improving opportunities and outcomes for children, youth, and students with disabilities."

"Congress created a clear federal oversight role for ED because of our nation's ugly history of denying children with disabilities a free appropriate public education. This critical federal enforcement has allowed ED to maintain accountability and find States in violation of IDEA, such as when Texas set an illegal cap on special education identification leading to a deliberate under-identification of children with disabilities and when New Mexico failed to maintain appropriate state special education funding. Clearly, federal oversight is a necessary component of our nation's special education system. Without it, families and children with disabilities are left to fight alone to secure services they are entitled to when schools and states fail to meet their obligations," continued the senators.

These transfers come as the Administration has successfully worked to undermine core functions and statutory responsibilities of ED, following sweeping and unlawful firings, workforce reductions, and reorganization last year that have already undermined the very goals of the Education Department.

Meanwhile, the transfer of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) out of ED also comes as the Trump administration has failed to uphold the federal government's obligations to protect students from unlawful discrimination. In 2025, ED's OCR reached the fewest resolution agreements in over 12 years and failed to reach a single resolution agreement related to sexual harassment, sexual violence, racial harassment, discriminatory school discipline, or the seclusion and restraint of children with disabilities, with over 12,000 pending cases that were under investigation by OCR at the start of this administration.

Despite this backlog, the administration is attempting to illegally transfer OCR's functions to the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division (CRT), which has lost an estimated 75% of its civil rights staff attorneys since January 2025, making it wholly unequipped to handle the over 23,000 complaints OCR receives and evaluates annually.

"We have a simple demand: follow our nation's education and appropriations laws as Congress wrote them to protect students' most basic right to a quality education. More than 80 education, disability, parent, and civil rights groups have vocally opposed the recent IAAs and other departmental changes. We call on this administration to immediately cease implementing these IAAs, fully implement IDEA and the Rehabilitation Act as Congressionally directed, and take immediate action to strengthen civil rights enforcement-instead of burying students' cases behind more bureaucracy. Our students and their families deserve nothing less," concluded the senators.

Click here to read the full text of the letter.