• President Trump’s executive order aims to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, a move that could significantly impact special education programs and funding.
• Advocates for students with disabilities are concerned that shifting oversight to states could lead to weaker enforcement of disability rights laws.

President Donald Trump’s drive to shut down the U.S. Education Department could reverberate through one community in New Jersey like few others: students and families who rely on special education programs for children with disabilities.

While the federal department has limited involvement in funding and standards for the general education population, it administers $15 billion a year that helps pay for classes, therapies and other resources for special education. It’s also the chief enforcer of laws that guarantee students with disabilities the right to a public education tailored to their needs.

The Trump administration has promised to preserve those functions in other parts of the government. But in New Jersey, advocates have raised alarms about shifting back to an era when state and local government often shortchanged the education of their most vulnerable students.

“Families are terrified. Educators are worried,” said Peg Kinsell, policy director at SPAN Parent Advocacy Network in Newark, which works with the disability community. “Nobody knows what’s happening next, and that’s a scary place to be.”

Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that seeks to eliminate the DOE, two weeks after letting go about half the department’s staff. The move is likely to set up another legal challenge testing the bounds of Trump’s power, with critics arguing the president can’t shut down the agency without approval by Congress.

Why does Trump want to cut the Education Department?

Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary, said in a statement to USA TODAY that the order “will empower parents, states, and communities to take control and improve outcomes for all students.” He said recent test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam “reveal a national crisis ‒ our children are falling behind.”

Federal funding for students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Title I funding for low-income schools and federal student loan payments will remain unchanged under the order while Education Secretary Linda McMahon works on a plan to “bring these funds closer to states, localities, and more importantly, students,” a White House official said.

About 7.5 million students rely on special education services in the U.S. The number has nearly doubled since the 1976-77 school year, the year after the IDEA was adopted and declared that schools had a legal responsibility to provide a “fair and appropriate” public education to students with disabilities.

New Jersey is home to one of the largest such populations in the country, according to Rutgers University’s New Jersey State Public Policy Lab. Among Garden State public school students, 18%, about 240,000 in total, are served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, according to the Lab.

New Jersey’s proposed 2026 budget anticipates $457.7 million in federal funding allocated to local school districts for special education services. At the local level, the money pays for staff as well as occupational and physical therapies and services required by students’ individual education plans, according to the federal Education Department.

While it’s still early, advocates say a sharp reduction in federal staff could weaken enforcement of IDEA and other disability rights laws and jeopardize funding and oversight.

Who’ll enforce civil rights laws?

The Department plays a role in enforcing civil rights protections under IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, a 1973 law that prohibits discrimination based on disability in programs receiving federal funding. Under the legislation, schools are required to provide equal access to education through accommodations such as extended time limits for tests and accessible transportation.

Kinsell said that handing enforcement back to the states would be a dangerous step backward.

“Giving it back to the states brings us down a really dark path,” she said. “Before IDEA was passed in 1975, many states simply refused to educate kids with disabilities. They segregated them, or didn’t let them attend school at all.”

Before the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was enacted, just one in five children with disabilities were taught in public schools, the federal DOE says on its website.

More: What will happen to student loans if the federal Education Department is closed?

Dismantling the department would fulfill a goal long sought by the political right. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington, D.C.-based think tank, contends that education policy should be made by states and local communities, not the federal government. The federal agency adds a layer of expensive bureaucracy that doesn’t directly educate students, the Foundation’s Jonathan Butcher and Lindsey Burke argued in a paper last summer.

Local control would allow for more innovation and flexibility in how education is delivered, they added, arguing the DOE imposes a one-size-fits-all solution that often doesn’t suit local needs.

But the National Education Association, the union that represents 3 million teachers and other educational professionals in the U.S., cautions that without the department’s oversight, inequities in special education services across states could grow significantly.

States already vary in how they implement IDEA, but federal monitoring helps ensure some consistency, the Association said. Without that safeguard, some states, especially those with tight budgets, might restrict eligibility or cut services, the NEA said in a statement.

Some Republicans would like to see federal education funding turned into block grants, in which states would get a lump sum to spend as they choose. Kinsell worries that would undermine services further for disabled students.

“Right now, IDEA funds are designated for special education students,” she said. “If it’s block-granted, states could take that money and spend it on something else, like building a gym, instead of serving kids with disabilities.”

DOE tracks special education data, trends

In addition to funding and legal enforcement, the Education Department collects and monitors data on how schools serve students with disabilities, tracking issues such as disproportionate discipline and lack of inclusion. Without DOE leadership, Kinsell said, such problems could go unchecked.

Cuts could affect not just enforcement but also vital programs like technical assistance, professional development and research, she argued. “There’s a lot of parts of the law beyond enforcement − training, curriculum development, research − that help states implement appropriate education,” Kinsell said. “If those are gone, the whole system suffers.”

Further complicating matters, Kinsell said, are proposals to split up existing federal offices. “They’re talking about moving the Office for Civil Rights to the Justice Department, disability programs to Health and Human Services, and vocational rehab to the Department of Labor,” she said. “That would scatter programs that need to work together.”

While no one knows what’s next, Kinsell said she expects that reducing or eliminating the department will have real impacts on families.

“The state of confusion is palpable − for advocates, for families, for educators,” she said. “It’s like watching the floor get pulled out from under everyone who relies on these supports.”

This article contains reporting from USA Today.