The mass layoffs of the Department of Education affected about 1,315 employees, including officials from all over the country who now wonder who will advocate those who attended.
The cuts, which represent a reduction of almost 50% in the department, affected each part of the Department of Education, according to the senior officials of the Department of Education.
But a family source tells ABC News that most of the reduction of force affected civil rights offices and federal students. Public officials who worked for OCR and FSA have the task of investigating discrimination within the United States schools and helping the nation’s students achieve higher education.
The OCR and the FSA staff in almost all regional offices were eliminated, according to the source, who spoke with ABC News on anonymity. Therefore, cuts to almost half of the federal agency “will affect” the operations of the department, according to the source familiar with the reductions that work in the department.
“I don’t know how [disabled students] He will receive service, “said another employee of the Department of Education who did not want his name to be used for this story.
The headquarters of the Department of Education of the United States, which was ordered closed for the day so officials described as security reasons amid large -scale layoffs, is seen on March 12, 2025 in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The employee office is an agency to apply the law responsible for enforcing anti -discrimination laws for students based on race, gender and disability, among other characteristics.
By law, the office reviews complaints about the most vulnerable students in the Nation, including section 504, which helps to ensure that students with disabilities have the same access to educational opportunities. The Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, has ensured that programs that are critical for students with disabilities will not be cut.
The closure of the office of this employee, and other regional offices, reduces the number of public officials throughout the country that ensure that these students are provided.
The employee of the Regional Education Department, who received the force of reduction in force on Tuesday, told ABC News that his civil rights office was abolished.
“All these disabled children, which is most of our file, will not receive help,” said the employee.
However, McMahon said the agency will still manage those legal programs in which the students of the disadvantaged environments trust. In an interview in Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Tuesday nightMcMahon suggested that the “good” employees who manage the ordinary functions will not be harmed in the process.
“What we did today was to take the first step to eliminate what I think is bureaucratic swelling,” McMahon said.
“It is something humanitarian for many people who are there, they are without work, but we wanted to make sure we kept all the right people, good people, to ensure that external programs, subsidies, the assignments that come from Congress, all those that are being fulfilled and none of that will fall into the cracks,” he said, he said.
Linda McMahon, nominated by President Donald Trump to be Secretary of Education, testifies during the Confirmation Hearing of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee of the Senate, February 13, 2025 in Washington.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
The impacted staff will be placed on the administrative license as of March 21, a statement from the Department of Education said on Tuesday. They will receive full wages and benefits until June 9, added senior officials.
The statement also said that the DOE “will continue to deliver all the legal programs that are in the scope of the agency, including formula funds, student loans, Pell subsidies, financing for students with special needs and competitive subsidies.”
But the news of Tuesday’s cuts was demoralizing for the employee of the Department of Education that is without work after more than two decades in the agency.
“It’s annoying,” said the employee. “It makes no sense, it is a world upside down.”
On Wednesday, Trump said he felt “very bad” for the mass cuts in the DOE, but quickly said, without evidence, that many of his employees did not go to work or do a good job.
“Now, the Department of Education, perhaps more than any other place, has many people who can be cut,” he said.
He praised McMahon, saying that she is doing a “very good job.”
“We have a dream, the dream is that we are going to move the Department of Education, we will transfer education to the United States,” he said.
The Trump administration has urged McMahon to return power to the United States, but education is already a local level problem. The responsibility of the Department of Education is to manage money, carry out critical research projects and supervise discrimination complaints.
“We all know that local education agencies and state education agencies: they control around 95% of what happens in public education,” said the employee of the Department of Education. “The Federal Government does not control the curriculum, does not control the hiring, the dismissal of the teachers, does not control the standardized tests, etc. We control nothing more than try to help people, grant loans to people so that they may help their family and educate themselves and go to university and then ensure that children who are disabled obtain the services that the laws say they should do so.”
The civil official said that they, along with the rest of his office, are now shocked.
“There are no rules in a hostile acquisition,” said the employee. “They are treating the government as if it were a business, and it is not and that is the unfortunate.”
