Special education staff fired after Trump administration cuts amid government shutdown

“He also knows that it’s illegal,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employeess, told theGrio of Trump’s efforts to fire more federal workers.

Mass layoffs by the Trump administration amid the government shutdown has hit critical offices supporting education for children with special needs.

On Friday, the Department of Education laid off several employees at the offices of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitative Services Administration. The Trump White House argued that such layoffs were necessary as a result of the shutdown. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier this month that Democrats “forced the White House and the president into this position.”

A staffer at the Department of Education, who spoke to ABC News anonymously out of fear of retribution, described the latest “ridiculous” cuts to the agency as a major blow to the nation’s most vulnerable population.

“There is a risk that the money to educate their children will not be given to the state, and that their access to support and advocacy for their children with special needs will no longer continue because there is no staff available to administer [the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act],” the employee, a department leader, told ABC.

The Education Department is responsible for enforcing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a law that establishes free and appropriate education for children with disabilities, which includes $15 billion in funding for special education services.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to eliminate the Education Department entirely. The department, established in 1980, is the smallest government agency and has seen its staff cut in half since Trump returned to office for his second term.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the nation’s largest federal worker union, has sued the Trump administration for its attempts to fire federal employees as a result of the government shutdown. The lawsuit states that the department laid off 466 employees, or at least 20% of the agency’s workforce.

U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks, along with other Democrats, attempted to safeguard special education services for children with disabilities, by introducing the Protecting Students with Disabilities Act. The bill has not made it out of committee.

“President Trump is committed to dismantling the Department of Education – and so much of our federal government. Any attempt to slash programs and protections for our students with disabilities is beyond callous,” Alsobrooks said at the time. “The contributions of our students with disabilities are limitless – they deserve safe and equitable learning environments. It’s our responsibility to ensure it.”

AFGE President Everett Kelley told theGrio last week that the Trump administration’s attemps to lay off more federal workers is the president’s way of “antagonizing and intimidating federal employees and making them the scapegoat in this political game.”

Democrats say the government shutdown is the making of Republicans, who refuse to negotiate with them over demands to restore tax credits and other funding for public health care.

“He also knows that it’s illegal,” Kelley said of Trump’s efforts to fire more federal workers. He added, “They want federal employees to be traumatized. They want them to feel like they’re nobody.”