The Education Department is handing off more work to other federal agencies, as part of an ongoing plan to dismantle its operations.
The department proceeded with two additional interagency agreements on Monday, transferring work on some of its programs to the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. It signed several interagency agreements with these agencies last fall, as well as with the Labor Department and the Interior Department.
The Education Department said these interagency agreements would “break up the federal bureaucracy,” and ensure more efficient delivery of programs and services. But in the near term, Education says it will jointly administer these programs alongside the State Department and HHS.
Unlike earlier interagency agreements, the Education Department says it has not yet transferred any of its personnel. An Education Department spokesperson told Federal News Network that no additional employees “have been detailed at this time” as part of its interagency agreements with the State Department and HHS.
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Last fall, Education Secretary Linda McMahon told staff that more than a dozen employees had been transferred to the Labor Department. McMahon said Education and Labor are “co-managing” these employees, and that their salaries are still covered by the Education Department’s budget.
The Trump administration seeks to close the Education Department, but it can’t do that without approval from Congress. The department’s leaders, however, expect that a temporary reorganization through these interagency agreements will convince lawmakers to permanently shutter the Education Department.
McMahon told staff last fall that the Trump administration’s goal is to find enough votes in Congress “to close the Department of Education.”
Rachel Gittleman, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education Department employees, said in a statement that the department recently attempted to fire “large numbers of career public servants in these very offices,” and is now shifting their work to agencies “with no educational expertise.”
The Education Department sent layoff notices to nearly 500 employees last fall during the 43-day government shutdown, but later rescinded them.
A federal court initially blocked agencies from proceeding with those reductions in force. Congress later passed a stopgap spending bill that blocked agencies from carrying out layoffs through mid-February.
“Secretary Linda McMahon is unlawfully dismantling the Education Department by moving programs and offices to other federal agencies despite a clear warning from Congress that she lacks the authority to do so,” Gittleman said.
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The State Department will assist the Education Department in overseeing foreign funding and gifts received by U.S. colleges and universities.
The 1965 Higher Education Act requires all higher education institutions offering a bachelor’s degree or higher to disclose foreign gifts and contracts worth more than $250,000 annually to the federal government.
Congress enacted these changes to provide greater transparency into the role of foreign funding in U.S. higher education.
Among its new duties, the State Department will support the Education Department in managing the foreign funding reporting portal.
The State Department said this partnership will ensure data from this portal will be easily accessible to national security experts, allowing potential threats to be addressed decisively and proactively.
Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers said in a statement that “Americans deserve transparency regarding foreign funding in American higher education.”
“This partnership gives the State Department additional tools and resources to make good on that promise while safeguarding the integrity of our academic institutions,” Rogers said.
The Education Department is partnering with HHS on family engagement and school support programs. These programs focus on a wide range of missions, including the safety and wellbeing of students, as well as the physical security of schools.
HHS will assist in administering the School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV), School Safety National Activities, Ready to Learn Programming, Full-Service Community Schools, Promise Neighborhoods and Statewide Family Engagement Centers.
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“HHS brings decades of frontline experience responding to crises and disasters, and we are putting that expertise directly into our schools,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement.
Congress recently passed a spending package that increased funding for the Education Department, rejecting the Trump administration’s calls for deep budget cuts to reflect many of its core programs being moved elsewhere.
A department spokesperson, however, said the fiscal 2026 appropriations bill “does not preclude the department from partnering with better-positioned federal agencies to manage federal education programs.”
The Education Department recently launched a portal with the Labor Department that has reduced the need for states to consult multiple federal agencies to manage their programs.
However, former Education Department employees and education nonprofits recently told House Democrats that these interagency agreements will lead to more bureaucracy, duplicative efforts and higher costs.
These interagency agreements will move billions of dollars in grant programs to other agencies. The Labor Department, in particular, will oversee federal funding that goes to K-12 schools, including grants for schools serving low-income communities. Once this transfer is complete, the Labor Department will disperse more education funding than it does for its own labor programs.
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