A new round of layoffs at the Education Department is depleting an agency that was hit hard in the Trump administration’s previous mass firings, threatening new disruption to the nation’s students and schools in areas from special education to civil rights enforcement to after-school programs.

About a fifth of the agency’s remaining staff was affected, including employees working on special education, funding for low-income students and civil rights enforcement.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought speaks to reporters after Democratic and Republican congressional leaders met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Sept. 29, 2025. Vought announced Friday that federal layoffs during the shutdown have begun, and those layoffs will hit the U.S. Department of Education.

The Trump administration has already cut hundreds of other employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher training and mental health grants.

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Wednesday the federal shutdown is proof that her department should be eliminated, as the Trump administration is trying to do.  “The Democrat government

The Rhode Island Department of Education put out a new five-year plan for special education as uncertainty swirls in Washington.

Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) leaders say they’re confident students won’t see any disruptions in services—even as staff scramble to adjust after the federal government abruptly