Arthur Jones II at ABC:
The nation's special education services have been significantly impacted after Friday's mass layoffs within the Department of Education and it could have an immediate impact on children with disabilities, education department sources told ABC News.
"Do people realize that this is happening to this population of vulnerable students?" one education department leader told ABC News.
"[If] there's no staff, who the heck is going to administer this program? That's the absurdity of this," the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, added.
The department leader stressed that several employees within the offices of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitative Services Administration -- the two divisions that make up the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) -- were cut over the weekend.
The agency enforces the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the law creating a free and appropriate education for children with disabilities, and funds special education services to the tune of around $15 billion.
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Rachel Gittleman, the president of AFGE Local 252, believes all remaining offices in OSERS below the senior executive services level were RIFed Friday.
“The RIF of OSERS and OESE doubles down on the harm to K-12 students and schools across the country, which are already feeling the impacts of a hamstring Office for Civil Rights (OCR) from the March RIF,” she said.
