Trump pulls special education, civil rights oversight from education department

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration is further dismantling the Education Department, moving oversight of special education and civil rights to other agencies.The Department of Justice will take on enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education.With the transfers announced Tuesday, the vast majority of Education Department functions now have been assigned to other agencies.Trump, a Republican, campaigned on shutting down the Education Department, saying he would “move education back to the states where it belongs.” While only Congress can close the department, Trump’s education secretary, Linda McMahon, a billionaire and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, has formed agreements with other federal agencies to handle much of her department’s work.McMahon said the agreements align federal responsibilities with the agencies best positioned to support them.“The Trump Administration has been clear: as we scale back federal micromanagement when it hinders success, we are equally committed to bolstering the efficacy of federal oversight where it is essential,” McMahon said in a written statement.Advocates said the changes would create uncertainty around services relied upon by millions of families.“As is too often the case, traditionally underserved students — including students with disabilities, Black and Latino students, multilingual learners, students from low-income backgrounds, and students in rural communities — will bear the greatest burden created by this reckless decision, to which the disability and civil rights communities have already been vehemently opposed,” said a written statement from EdTrust, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates for educational equity.The Education Department already has offloaded some of its programs through 10 earlier internal agreements, but the agencies involved in Tuesday’s announcement — ...