The Trump administration announced on Tuesday plans to move two major functions of the Education Department to other parts of the government in the most aggressive moves yet by the White House to dismantle an agency it has pledged to dissolve.
The changes move programs for disabled students into the Health and Human Services Department and the enforcement of civil rights laws in schools to the Justice Department. Administration officials said the changes would improve government efficiency and lead to better results for students.
Eliminating the Education Department requires an act of Congress, and disability groups have argued that so does moving the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. The office oversees $15 billion a year in funding for students with disabilities and enforces compliance with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.
The Education Department will also shift duties for its Office for Civil Rights, which for decades has enforced anti-discrimination laws in schools, to the Justice Department.
In recent years, the largest share of complaints about discrimination in schools have been filed on behalf of disabled students. The changes appeared to decouple the administration of services for students with disabilities from the enforcement of civil rights protections for those same students.
The changes were expected to be challenged in court immediately as part of a continuing lawsuit that a coalition of Democratic attorneys general first filed last year over the administration’s attempts to dismantle the Education Department.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents about 2,000 current and former Education Department workers, immediately criticized the announcement, describing the moves as part of the Trump administration’s attempt to “unlawfully dismantle the Education Department.”
“This will leave our most vulnerable students and families who have been shut out of our education system without the services they need and without protection when they face discrimination,” said Rachel Gittleman, the president of A.F.G.E. Local 252. “This isn’t efficiency; it’s chaos.”
Education Department officials said students, parents and educators would not experience any change in services. But additional details were not immediately available.
“These agreements align federal responsibilities with the agencies best positioned to support them, strengthening the effectiveness and impact of critical services,” Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said in a statement.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which has a budget of $140 million, will now refer all civil rights complaints to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, according to an agreement between the departments. The Justice Department has lost more than 20 percent of the nearly 13,000 lawyers it had at the start of the second Trump administration, which some have attributed to political pressure inside the department.
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said in a statement that the moves were intended to “build a stronger, more coordinated civil rights enforcement system.”
Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have raised concerns to Ms. McMahon about a growing backlog of civil rights complaints in schools. In response, Ms. McMahon told lawmakers last month that she wanted to hire more civil rights lawyers at the Education Department, despite a budget request from the White House to reduce funding for that office.
Advocacy groups argued that by moving the offices for special education and civil rights, the Trump administration was effectively weakening oversight after already drastically reducing staffing in those areas.
“Moving special education to Health and Human Services risks treating disabilities as medical conditions rather than protecting students’ legal right to a free and appropriate public education,” said Keri Rodrigues, the president of the National Parents Union, in a written statement. “Shifting civil rights enforcement to the Justice Department turns parents seeking support into potential litigants. Families didn’t ask for lawsuits. They asked for their children to be educated.”
The Education Department was established by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, fulfilling a campaign promise to the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union. Before then, many federal education programs were administered by what was then called the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the agency that evolved into today’s Health Department.
Over the subsequent decades, the Education Department began to enjoy bipartisan support, presiding over popular funding streams for student aid, vocational learning and disability services. But since 1980, a core of Republicans have called to shut the department down.
Still, there has been little movement from Republican leaders in control of Congress to vote on measures that would dismantle or eliminate the department. In the meantime, the Trump administration has pushed ahead by effectively subcontracting the department’s duties to other agencies.
Relying on so-called “interagency agreements,” which have generally been used to purchase supplies or lease space between federal agencies, the Trump administration has transferred tens of billions in government programs out of the Education Department.
Last year, the Education Department transferred oversight of $28 billion in funding for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, $3 billion in grants for the Office of Postsecondary Education and $2.6 billion in programs and day-to-day administration of career, technical and adult education programs to the Labor Department. The Interior Department has taken over management of the Office of Indian Education, and the State Department and health department have also been tasked with oversight of some educational programs.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has alienated disability advocates and researchers by claiming that some vaccines may cause autism, despite evidence that they are safe. He has previously said that his agency was “fully prepared” to take over the office for students with disabilities. In a statement on Tuesday, he said the changes “will improve education and employment outcomes, uphold the rights of individuals with disabilities and help every child reach their full potential.”
But disability rights advocates said the changes were confusing for schools and parents and would make it harder for the federal government to act on behalf of children.
“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,” said Katy Neas, the chief executive of The Arc of the United States, a disability rights group, and a former Education Department staff member under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The Trump administration, she added, was “leaving families chasing answers across the federal government instead of getting accountability from one education agency.”
