In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Project 2025 proposed to turn IDEA into a "no strings" block grant, effectively gutting the law and destroying protections that disability families have long relied upon. During the 2024 race, Trump denied any connection to the project, but now he proclaims it, praising OMB director Russ Vought "of Project 2025 fame."
Trump and Vought are now accomplishing their goal of ravaging the law. Instead of turning it into a block grant, they have tried firing most of the staff who enforce it. More recently, they have shifted OSERS to HHS and OCR to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, headed by a political hack who uses the r-word as a slur.
The top Trump administration official overseeing special education is resigning ahead of a contentious reshuffling of her office's workforce to the Health and Human Services Department.
Kelly Rogers, the acting assistant secretary in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, is set to depart her job on Friday, Sept. 11, according to an email obtained by USA TODAY. She was in the job for fewer than four months.
The shift injects yet another element of volatility into the work of the federal division in charge of administering billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to states and schools to help students with disabilities. The office, which experts have described as the "engine room" of special education, has been particularly rocked over the past year and a half by President Donald Trump's crusade to dismantle the Education Department. The downsizing campaign has led to many morale-sinking changes, including major layoffs and a scrutinized plan to give HHS a greater role in the division's operations.Rogers' abrupt exit comes as more than 100 employees in her division are set to physically move over to HHS this week, according to the Education Department's union, which opposes the move and calls it illegal. Congressional Democrats, and even some Republicans, have expressed doubts about the benefits of the reorganization, which Trump administration officials have said is part of their broader efforts to limit the federal role in education. Rogers struggled during a July 9 meeting to assuage disability advocates' concerns about potential bureaucratic dysfunction caused by the shift, USA TODAY previously reported.
