Education Department layoffs hindered congressionally mandated activities, inspector general reports

Layoffs at the Education Department during the first two months of President Donald Trump’s second term resulted in the agency being unable to perform legally required activities, according to a report published on Monday by the department’s inspector general. 

The watchdog found that many Education suboffices were left without any staffers due to reductions in force and various separation incentives, which hindered the department’s ability to perform dozens of statutory and oversight functions between Jan. 20, 2025, and March 31, 2025. 

Some of the impacted activities included:

• Overseeing states, nonprofits, lending institutions and servicers that are involved in federal financial aid for postsecondary students. 
• Managing grants to states for helping youth learn English. 
• Administering a congressionally mandated program that helps educational institutions acquire excess federal property. 
• Advising department employees on ethics matters. 

The IG said that the department did not provide all requested information or allow “unfettered” access to agency staff, which restricted the investigators’ review. Education’s deputy general counsel, Philip Rosenfelt, said in a letter attached to the report that officials’ compliance was limited by court orders. 

“Proceding beyond what had been shared — including information contained in, or outside of, the litigation administrative records — risked prejudicing or interfering with the department’s litigation posture and, critically, and potentially contravening the preliminary injunctions or other orders then in effect,” he wrote. 

Education initiated the RIF on March 11, 2025, but the action was blocked by a federal judge in May 2025. The Supreme Court in July 2025, however, ruled that the separations could proceed.

Investigators did not consider the court orders to be a valid reason for the department’s noncompliance, arguing that the IG has “a longstanding history of reviewing and protecting sensitive department information, including materials related to ongoing litigation” and that officials never adequately explained why providing access to documents and staff would violate the preliminary injunction. 

In addition, Rosenfelt requested in the letter that investigators include language that “some or all” of the department functions the IG identified as not having any assigned staffers were conducted by other offices or agencies. The IG declined. 

“We cannot acknowledge, as requested by the department, that some or all of the responsibilities referenced in the report were fulfilled by the department, other agencies or through other means, as no corroborating evidence has been provided to support the department’s assertion that it has continued to discharge those responsibilities since the RIF,” investigators wrote. 

In total, the IG reported that between Jan. 20, 2025, and March 31, 2025, the department, which the Trump administration is seeking to eliminate, shed 40% of its workforce, with around 1,200 due to layoffs and more than 350 from voluntary separations like the deferred resignation program. 

Federal workforce data from the Office of Personnel Management shows that Education went from roughly 4,200 employees in 2024 to nearly 2,300 staffers now. 

Education Secretary Linda McMahon testified before Congress in April that some of the department’s staff cuts went too far and noted that laid off Office of Civil Rights staffers were asked to return due to case backlogs. 

The IG also found that Education, during the report period, terminated 129 contracts worth a total value of $1.3 billion, some of which were for legally required educational studies. And the department canceled 90 grants with total obligations of nearly $504 million. Of those grants, officials identified 153 awards for termination under a program for partnerships to train school-based mental health service providers. 

Rachel Gittleman — the president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education employees — contended the report “gives the public the fullest picture to date of the devastation McMahon has wrought.” 

"This confirms what we've been saying all along: The Trump Administration has been systematically destroying the Education Department,” Gittleman said in a statement. 

As part of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle Education, the department has signed interagency agreements with several other agencies for them to take on various responsibilities, including most recently transferring special education programs to the Health and Human Services Department and civil rights enforcement to the Justice Department. 

Education Inspector General 

Education’s IG office has experienced significant leadership turnover since the start of Trump’s second term. 

The president removed IG Sandra Bruce in January 2025 as part of a mass firing of the watchdogs. Then, in July 2025, he replaced acting IG René Rocque, who is also the office’s deputy, after she notified Congress that investigators had “experienced unreasonable denials and repeated delays” from the department during an investigation into the administration’s workforce reductions.

The replacement’s — Heidi Semann, who comes from the Federal Reserve OIG — tenure as acting ended at the end of 2025 due to time limits on how long officials can serve in an acting capacity. She is, however, Trump’s nominee to serve as Education IG. 

Currently, Mark Priebe is the acting Education IG. He previously held a senior position in the office and appears to have shared social media posts supporting the president.