President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will assume responsibility for students with disabilities has sparked widespread backlash and confusion among disability advocates, educators, and legal experts. The brief announcement, made during an unrelated event about a fighter jet, offered no specifics on how or when this transfer of authority would occur. Yet, its implications could be significant—and, according to many experts, illegal.

Under current federal law, specifically the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), oversight of special education services is clearly assigned to the Department of Education. The law mandates the existence of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) within the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), which must reside within the Department of Education. This office is explicitly designated as the principal federal agency for administering IDEA and other educational programs for children with disabilities. As the statute stands, no such transfer of authority can legally occur without congressional action to amend IDEA and related legislation.

Legal experts and disability rights groups emphasize the president does not have the unilateral power to reassign IDEA oversight or funding. IDEA not only establishes programmatic responsibilities but also gives the Education Secretary authority over the distribution of federal special education grants. Moreover, budget laws specify IDEA funds must remain with the Department of Education. Any attempt to move them without legislation would violate these provisions.

Advocates also warn of practical consequences. HHS is a massive bureaucracy focused primarily on health-related services, including Medicare, Medicaid, public health, and drug regulation. Unlike the Department of Education, it lacks both the personnel and the expertise to support state education agencies, school districts, and educators in delivering legally required special education services. There is deep concern special education could become an afterthought in such a system, losing the educational grounding that IDEA was designed to ensure.

The announcement has also reignited fears that the administration seeks to revert to outdated models of disability as a medical issue, rather than recognizing it as part of the diverse population of public schools. IDEA’s passage in 1975 was built on the principle that students with disabilities should be educated alongside their nondisabled peers as much as possible. Shifting oversight to HHS is widely seen as undermining that vision.

As of now, neither HHS nor the Department of Education has released specific details or a timeline. Education Secretary Linda McMahon mentioned vaguely that “some” IDEA programs might move to HHS but offered no elaboration. Until Congress acts to change the statute, there is no legal pathway for such a transfer, and any attempt to implement it without legislation would likely face immediate legal challenges.