Murray Blasts Trump and McMahon’s Decision to Abandon Students with Disabilities & the Administration’s Legal Responsibility to Protect Students’ Civil Rights

Murray slams the Inter-Agency Agreements inked today by the Education Department to offload the responsibilities of the Office for Civil Rights to Todd Blanche's DOJ and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to RFK Jr.'s HHS

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on Education Secretary Linda McMahon's announcement today that the Department of Education is illegally transferring the responsibilities of the Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through Inter-Agency Agreements (IAA).

"The Trump administration is abandoning kids with disabilities and its most basic legal responsibility to protect the rights of every student in the classroom.

"After spending the last year smashing the Office for Civil Rights to pieces, President Trump and Secretary McMahon are now turning to Todd Blanche to deliver the final blow. And after spending months vowing she would protect students with disabilities, Secretary McMahon is ignoring the families of students with disabilities who pleaded with her not to entrust RFK Jr. with the responsibility of ensuring their kids get the education they deserve. It makes zero sense to scatter federal education programs all over the government-with different agencies managing different educational programs and each of them lacking the expertise to do it.

"Instead of helping kids get a great education, this administration is spending its time, energy, and taxpayer resources fixated on where employees sit and illegally trying to shutter the Department of Education. It's an outrageous betrayal that undoes decades of hard-won progress for students. More kids with disabilities will be denied the education they are entitled to by law, and more college students who were harassed or assaulted will go without the justice they are owed.

"Democrats tried hard to block these illegal arrangements in our most recent funding bill, but Republicans refused. It's past time Republicans join us to say enough is enough. I'm going to keep fighting to force this administration to help students get the education they are entitled to under law."

OCR is charged with enforcing federal civil rights laws to protect students' rights in the classroom, and the Department of Education Organization Act of 1979 mandates the existence of the Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department to carry out these responsibilities.

Last year, the Trump administration thoughtlessly eliminated more than half of the staff in the Office for Civil Rights and closed half of the regional field offices, and in the time since, there has been a precipitous drop-off in the resolution of students' cases. In 2025, the Department reached the lowest number of resolutions in 12 years and reached zero resolutions for students facing serious incidents including sexual harassment, sexual violence, seclusion, restraint, racial harassment, and discriminatory school discipline. Senator Murray has mobilized against the administration's efforts to hollow out OCR, called out how it's hurt students and families, and she's repeatedlypressed Secretary McMahon on the issue.

OSERS is charged with implementing and enforcing the Rehabilitation Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which mandate that students with disabilities get the free appropriate public education and independence they deserve. In April, Senator Murray pressed Secretary McMahon on her plans to potentially offload OSERS' responsibilities and told McMahon: "That is exactly why these parents and advocates are spitting mad because what they want to make sure is that their child with a disability has an education."

Senator Murray hasaggressivelypushedbackagainst Secretary McMahon's efforts to dismantle the Department, including through the illegal use of IAAs, and she fought to insert ironclad language in the fiscal year 2026 funding bill for the Department that would bar Secretary McMahon from using IAAs to dismantle the Department-but Republicans refused to include new, binding language that would block arrangements like the ones announced today.

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