The Education Department this week announced a plan to move core special education functions from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to the Department of Health and Human Services, placing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in line to oversee them. The change would move part of the federal work for students with disabilities out of the Education Department and into a health agency.
OSERS and HHS
OSERS helps people with disabilities achieve competitive integrated employment, a placement that pays at least minimum wage, provides the same benefits as those for nondisabled employees, and allows people to work with nondisabled employees. The Education Department said it is shifting away responsibilities of the office as part of a series of partnerships with other U.S. government agencies announced earlier this week.
Katy Neas, chief executive of The Arc of the United States and a former acting assistant secretary at OSERS, said, “A student who is denied services, disciplined for disability-related needs, or blocked from an accessible classroom needs one federal education system that can see the whole picture and act.” Her warning goes to the practical question for families: which federal office would handle service disputes, discipline tied to disability, and access issues if the work moves.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
The proposal runs into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Its most recent reauthorization was signed by President George W. Bush in 2004, and that law says the office must exist within the Department of Education. On that point, the Education Department’s plan and the statute appear to point in different directions.
Kennedy’s role makes the shift more direct. If the functions move, he would oversee them at HHS, where the department would be handling work tied to disability services that has long sat inside the Education Department. The same office also sits inside a broader federal structure that advocates say lets schools and families deal with a student’s needs in one place.
Earlier this week’s announcement follows a broader Trump administration effort to alter the Education Department. Last year, the Trump administration fired almost all OSERS employees during the government shutdown, and disability rights advocates said the new plan added to their concern about how the office would function if its core work leaves the Education Department.
Kennedy’s own remarks in April sharpened the response from disability advocates. He said, “These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.” The article says many autistic people do all of the things Kennedy described as impossible.
The unresolved issue is whether the legal structure can be changed without Congress. The statute says OSERS must exist within the Education Department, so any move to HHS would have to confront that requirement before the functions could actually sit elsewhere.
