Education Department hands off more of its responsibilities to other US agencies

WASHINGTON — The Education Department is handing over more of its programs and grants to other federal agencies, announcing a pair of new agreements Monday that move the Trump administration closer to its goal of shutting down the department.

Under one interagency agreement, the Health and Human Services Department will take over grant programs that send millions of dollars to schools for safety and community engagement efforts. Another calls for the State Department to take over a portal that tracks foreign gifts to universities.

''As we continue to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states, our new partnerships with the State Department and HHS represent a practical step toward greater efficiency, stronger coordination, and meaningful improvement,'' Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

Republican President Donald Trump and McMahon have acknowledged only Congress has authority to close the Education Department fully, but both have suggested its core functions could be parceled out to different federal agencies.

The agreement with HHS moves a small subset of grants to the health agency without touching the Education Department's special education work. McMahon has long suggested that special education programs should be moved to HHS too, and as recently as December she told advocates that she still intends to move those programs out of the department.

Yet the issue has proved to be politically volatile for McMahon, who has been grilled over her plans for special education even by some in her party. The latest agreements make no mention of the department's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which manages billions of dollars in grants and oversees state compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Last year, the department signed seven similar agreements, transferring a sweeping slate of work to the Department of Labor and the Interior Department, in addition to the State Department and HHS. Those agreements covered billions in federal funding streams that went to programs like Title I, which supports low-income students.

''This isn't efficiency — Secretary McMahon is creating confusion for schools and colleges, eroding public trust, and harming students and families," AFGE Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman said in a statement.

"This is an insult to the tens of millions of students who rely on the Department to safeguard access to quality education and to the taxpayers who depend on federal oversight to prevent waste.''

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state said the agreements would hurt students and families.

''These illegal agreements aren't just creating pointless new bureaucracy that burdens our already-overworked teachers and schools; they are actively jeopardizing resources and support that students and families count on and are entitled to under the law,'' Murray said.

Under the new agreements, the State Department will take an increased role in data collection, reporting and enforcement of Section 117, which requires colleges and universities to disclose gifts of $250,000 or more each year.

But the future of those programs is already uncertain. In its 2026 budget request, the Trump administration said it wanted to zero out the budget of five of the six programs it is transferring to HHS. And in December, some recipients of the Promise Neighborhoods and Full-Service Community Schools grants, which pay for academic and afterschool enrichment opportunities for students, were notified that their funding would not continue in 2026, bringing much of their work to a sudden halt. ___

Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.

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