10/29/2025

MICHIGAN - Experts warn that recent federal layoffs at the U-S Department of Education could gut key protections for children with disabilities.

In March, roughly half of the department’s 42-hundred positions were eliminated, and a new proposal would slash nearly 500 more, largely wiping out the Office of Special Education Programs, or OSEP. Josh Cowen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University, says the move could leave families without critical support.

0:10  "It's the U.S. Department of Education, historically, at least over the last 40 years, that has been in charge of being kind of the last round of defense for those kids when they aren't getting what they need."

Federal officials contend the layoffs are necessary in order to streamline operations, reduce bureaucracy, and redistribute special education work to agencies such as Health and Human Services while maintaining current funding levels.