House Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Keep Special Education and Other Offices Inside Education Department

Three Representatives introduced a bipartisan House bill on September 3, 2026, that would block the Education Department from transferring its special education, postsecondary, Native American, and elementary and secondary education offices to other federal agencies. The bill is companion legislation to a Senate version (S. 5046) that passed the HELP Committee in July and now awaits a full vote. The bill’s sponsors said the offices should stay within the Department of Education because other agencies lack the staff, experience, and expertise to administer them, and the Council for Exceptional Children warned that moving special education oversight to Health and Human Services would separate it from other education programs. The Department of Education stated the move would sabotage reforms meant to fix a system where roughly 30% of students are proficient in math and reading, Higher Ed Dive reports. Neither the House nor Senate bill addresses the separate transfer of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to the Justice Department, which has drawn its own criticism from civil rights groups.