Executive Director Statement on U.S. Department of Education Plan to Transfer Offices to New Federal Agencies

The Trump administration has begun implementation of its plan to shutter the Department of Education. While closing the Department entirely would require Congressional action, the President can greatly reduce its impact through administrative action. 

On November 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education announced multiple interagency agreements that will see six department offices, representing key statutory functions, transferred to new federal agencies. The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Postsecondary Education will be transferred to the Labor Department; the Office of Indian Education to the Interior Department; campus child care access and foreign medical school accreditation programs to the Department of Health and Human Services; and international education and foreign language programs to the State Department. A lawsuit challenging these IAAs was filed on November 25, 2025, by a broad coalition of school districts, employee unions, and a disability rights organization. The complaint argues that  “scattering Department of Education programs among agencies with no expertise in education or lacking key agency infrastructure will reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of these programs and will prevent the type of synergy that Congress intended to achieve by consolidating federal education activities in one cabinet-level agency.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the agreements are temporary, but could be made permanent by an act of Congress. In a recent cabinet meeting, she stated the plan is to “make sure they're working and working smoothly before we ask Congress to codify these permanent moves.” The long-term goal is to move “other programs, but these are proof of concept.” 

This announcement does not mean any transferred staff or programs are being eliminated at this time. The continuing resolution that extends government funding until January 30, 2026, also prevents the administration from enacting any reductions-in-force until that date. Although the full impacts of these agreements are still to be seen, we are not expecting any disruptions to the Department’s ongoing efforts to implement the One Big, Beautiful Bill, including any scheduled negotiated rulemaking committees such as the Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) Committee. Below is a helpful table showing where impacted programs are moving and the level of funding associated with each move. 

Notably, Federal Student Aid (FSA) was not moved. This program, which has been rumored for transfer to either the Small Business Administration, the Treasury Department, or even partially sold to the private market, consists of $1.67 trillion in total outstanding federal student loans for 42.3 million recipients, according to FSA data from June 2025. There has been no word on when such a move for this program will be finalized. 

The Department argues that breaking up the federal education bureaucracy in this manner will “ensure efficient delivery of funded programs.” However, AACRAO has several concerns that this decision will have the exact opposite effect. Institutional knowledge is a key factor in the success of any organization, and these IAAs raise concerns that there won’t be enough expertise left at the Department to administer impacted programs effectively. By one estimate, over 200,000 civil servants have left or been fired from the federal workforce in 2025 alone, taking with them combined centuries worth of knowledge. 

AACRAO also has questions about what these IAAs will mean for data collection. One of the key advantages of having a centralized federal department of education is to facilitate quality data collection on a national scale. Nearly all our developed peer countries in the G20 have a national department or ministry of education to coordinate national education statistics. The availability of valid and authoritative data on education is becoming increasingly important as we seek to improve quality and outcomes. We have questions about both short and long-term impacts of further decentralization of data collection efforts. 

Lastly, there have been questions about what these IAAs will mean for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is the foundational privacy legislation that protects the privacy of learner data, and AACRAO members are the leaders in maintaining institutional compliance with that legislation. It is unclear how FERPA will be administered and enforced by the Department when its educational programs are administered by multiple agencies. We assume that all of the Department's regulations and policies governing these programs will continue to be applicable despite the fact that they will be administered by multiple agencies. We are nonetheless concerned that other agency staff, potentially having little knowledge of FERPA, will be overseeing the program and all its complexity. Interagency confusion regarding rights and responsibilities around data sharing under FERPA has been a recurring theme in recent years, most notably during the 2020 Census, when institutions were asked to participate in ways that were not compliant with FERPA. 

While AACRAO is working to understand what this announcement means for higher education, institutions should document any and all changes observed in the communication and services from the Department of Education and the new agencies that now serve those functions, and share those changes with us. This information will allow us to advocate for clarity and guidance on your behalf.

We recognize and appreciate your diligent efforts to ensure that your learners are supported and your institution is compliant within a shifting regulatory environment. If you haven’t already done so, consider joining the AACRAO Exchange, where you can connect with the community and gain knowledge and insight from your peers. Professional communities where practitioners can share insight and best practices are more important than ever, as federal guidance may become increasingly less clear and less frequent. Your AACRAO community will continue to support you in these challenging times. 

Sincerely,
Melanie Gottlieb
Executive Director, AACRAO

The following table was produced by EducationCounsel. The abbreviation “USED” stands for “U.S. Department of Education.”