“There’s no good news here,” said Edith Bazile, chairperson of Boston Public Schools’ Special Education Parent Advisory Council. “Students with disabilities can’t afford for the federal government to walk away, because rights without enforcement aren’t rights — they are broken promises.”
On Oct. 10, the Trump administration began issuing reduction-in-force notices to around 4,200 government workers, including 466 in the Education Department, according to court filings. Trump has acknowledged there is a political motive for the layoffs, which also impact Housing and Human Services, Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that the layoffs “are closing up Democrat programs that we disagree with, and they’re never going to open again.”
The Education Department layoffs would include members of the agency’s Office of Special Education Programs, which advocates and officials said is an essential agency for families whose students’ special education requirements were not being met in local schools.
Ben Tobin, a Western Massachusetts special education advocate, said the Education Department staff have been doing critical work to help communities better serve families.
“It serves no purpose, beyond being cruel,” he said of the planned reductions.
The cuts would affect the office’s ability to oversee special education services and diminish afterschool programs and support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, state leaders have said.
As a candidate and president, Trump repeatedly called for dismantling the nation’s Education Department, blaming it for ideologically warping the nation’s public schools and failing to improve student outcomes.
The department annually oversees about $1.6 trillion in federal student loans and administered about $45 billion in K-12 education aid to the states. That state aid includes about $300 million to Massachusetts schools under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Advocates and local leaders have raised concerns about the future of that aid.
US Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Diana Diaz-Harrison, the deputy assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, did not respond to Globe questions Friday.
Andrew O’Leary, New Bedford’s schools superintendent, denounced the planned layoffs in the department’s special education office.
New Bedford is home to around 12,500 students, including nearly a quarter of students who have disabilities, according to state data. The district received about $4 million a year under the disabilities education act, he said, which is primarily used for staffing.
“The reported mass layoffs — if not near-total elimination — of staff within the Office of Special Education Programs are deeply concerning,” O’Leary said. “These offices also serve as a vital outlet for parents whose needs are not being met in districts nationwide and as an essential source of expertise and best practice across the country.”
The danger posed by the cuts could mean students would be stripped of a crucial layer of protection that helps ensure their right to access public education, said Collins Fay-Martin, a special education attorney. And that loss would be carried by their loved ones, too, she said.
“In the end, the students and the families pay the price,” Fay-Martin said. “Children do not exist in a vacuum. What the children suffer, their families suffer.”
Last week’s announced layoffs came after Trump nearly halved the formerly 4,100-member Department of Education in March.
Those earlier cuts struck hard at critical agency services, such as the National Center for Education Statistics and the Office for Civil Rights. While an earlier court ruling paused those springtime cuts, the Supreme Court ultimately allowed them to move forward.
In a federal court in San Francisco Wednesday, US District Court Judge Susan Illston ordered a pause for the latest round of layoffs, which includes more than two dozen other agencies. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 28 for Illston to consider a longer-term halt of the layoffs.
In Massachusetts, Governor Maura Healey and Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler on Wednesday blasted the latest Education Department layoffs.
“Donald Trump is weaponizing the shutdown to fire hard-working educators. Because of President Trump’s actions, our kids will lose the mental health care, tutoring, and special education they need,” Healey said in a statement. “This needs to stop.”
In response to questions, a spokesperson for state’s the K-12 Education Department referred to Healey’s statement.
The federal Education Department provides a vital oversight role to hold states accountable, advocates said. In February, the department’s Office of Special Education Programs reported that Massachusetts failed to ensure local school districts provide special education students with the services and protections they are entitled to under federal law.
Pam Nourse, executive director of the Federation for Children with Special Needs, warned that the state has already been found out of compliance in key areas, and it was federal oversight that prompted corrective action.
“Just as we know people will run red lights if no one is watching, we know that without enforcement, IDEA violations will occur and students will be harmed,” Nourse said.
Ellen Chambers, founder of SPEDWatch, said she is concerned that without federal enforcement, students with disabilities will not receive the services they need. That would have long-term consequences that go far beyond schools, she said. Chambers founded the Massachusetts-based advocacy group in 2005 to organize family outreach to federal authorities.
Without that support, they “will be relegated to a much lower standard of living for their entire lives,” Chambers said. “Taxes will skyrocket as we will now need to provide more expensive and intense services for adults with disabilities who could have been successful with far less support.”
Gaurav Jashnani, the parent of a child who requires special education services in Northampton, said the impending layoffs send a troubling message to disabled students.
“‘You don’t matter, you don’t belong, and you don’t have any rights,’“ Jashnani said. “It’s the same message we’ve been seeing in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and immigrant status across the board.”
Earlier this year, Jashnani was referred to as a “pain in the ass” by a Northampton school staffer for his advocacy for his child.
The state documented failures of the district’s special education services following two separate investigations this year, both following complaints filed by Jashnani.
Superintendent Portia Bonner, in a statement to the Globe, has said the district is making changes to its special education programs.
Jashnani said a federal retreat from enforcing special education law will only erode students’ rights further.
“Without federal enforcement, it’s as good as gone,” he said.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social.
link