Public sector unions are reporting sweeping layoffs in the U.S. Department of Education (ED) as the government shutdown passes the two-week mark.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, a union representing more than 2,700 ED employees, said members reported significant layoffs at the department over the weekend of Oct. 10–11.
The union said the layoffs would “decimate many offices within the agency,” including the Office for Civil Rights, which investigates discrimination complaints in schools and universities.
Per member reporting, "only the two most senior staff members remain in the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and only one single staff member remains in the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA).”
NASDSE referred to the information as "informal reports," and stated that while the ED has not publicly confirmed the layoffs, the union "believes the informal reports to be true."
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement on Oct. 15 that the “government shutdown has forced agencies to evaluate what federal responsibilities are truly critical for the American people.”
“Two weeks in, millions of American students are still going to school, teachers are getting paid, and schools are operating as normal,” she said amid the reports of furloughs.
The ED has taken “additional steps to better reach American students and families and root out the education bureaucracy that has burdened states and educators with unnecessary oversight,” she said.
She emphasized that education funding remains unaffected by the staff reductions, including support for special education, and emphasized that the clean continuing resolution “supported by the Trump Administration will provide states and schools the funding they need to support all students.”
At the start of the shutdown, McMahon warned Congress through a report to the Office of Management and Budget that a lapse in fiscal-year 2026 appropriations would furlough about 1,485 of the department’s 1,700 non-federal student aid employees and suspend most grant monitoring, civil rights investigations, and technical support.
Only programs tied to “protection of life or property” or funded by mandatory or advance appropriations have continued, the ED said.
The department’s contingency plan noted that Pell Grant and Direct Loan disbursements would continue, but new grant awards and research by the National Center for Education Statistics would be halted, with delays and backlogs expected once funding resumes.
Out of 1,700 staff in the main department, about 1,485 were furloughed; in the Office of Federal Student Aid, 632 of 747 were furloughed.
Only four employees are required to perform duties “expressly authorized by law,” while 48 in the department and 103 in Federal Student Aid are deemed necessary to carry out functions “necessarily implied by law.” In total, about 155 ED staff members remain on duty.
As the shutdown entered its 12th day, Vance said the reductions “are going to be painful,” following confirmation that about 4,100 federal employees had received layoff notices on Oct. 10, with more expected if those in Congress fail to act.