MOVERS NEEDED! 📦 What Is Happening to the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services?

Apparently, special education is moving.

Literally.

This week, DiveIn takes a short break from our Inclusive Education Series for an important update from Washington, D.C.

Kuna Tavalin from the Council for Exceptional Children returns to the podcast to help us make sense of the changes involving OSERS, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

I jokingly asked Kuna whether OSERS employees were actually walking around Washington carrying boxes from one federal agency to another.

It was a joke.

Or at least, I thought it was.

Kuna informed me that employees had, in fact, been given boxes and were packing their offices.

Unfortunately, reality continues to make satire about federal special education policy increasingly difficult.

But behind the moving boxes are much more serious questions.

What exactly is moving to HHS—and what remains at the Department of Education? Who will be responsible for implementing and overseeing IDEA? What happens to federal special education funding? What could separating special education from general K–12 education mean for students with disabilities? And could locating special education within a health agency reinforce a medical model of disability?

We also discuss the role of political leadership, concerns about autism policy, the possibility of IDEA funding becoming connected to the broader push for school vouchers, what Congress is doing, and what educators, families, researchers, and advocates should be watching next.

And believe it or not, Kuna even brings us some good news from Washington.

Not a lot.

Let's not get carried away.

At one point, Kuna tells me that I am basically speaking her nightmares out loud.

Which may be the best description of my interviewing style I have heard yet.

So, if you've been reading the headlines about OSERS, HHS, and the Department of Education and wondering...

“Wait. Who moved where? And who is actually in charge now?”

This episode is for you.

We'll unpack what we know, what remains unclear, and what all of this could mean for the future of federal special education policy.

And we'll try to figure out where all those boxes are going. 📦

Are you ready? Let's DiveIn.