What is HHS, and what does it have to do with special education?

If your child receives special education services, you’ve probably been hearing about HHS. That’s the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS is taking on a new role in providing these services. You may be wondering: What does a health agency have to do with my child’s education?

We get why this might feel confusing, or even a little unsettling. You’re already working hard to make sure your child gets the support they need. And now there’s a new agency in the mix.

Here’s the short version: The U.S. Department of Education has overseen many aspects of special education since it began operating in 1980. It made sure schools follow the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the law that guarantees special education services to eligible kids with disabilities. Now, that’s changing. HHS will handle most special education programs going forward. 

Knowing what HHS does can help you make sense of these changes. Here’s what you should know. 

The Department of Health and Human Servicesopens in a new tab (HHS) is one of the largest government agencies. It works to protect people’s health and provides health-related services to children, families, and adults. 

HHS oversees many programs you may have heard of, like Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It also oversees agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

HHS also provides services for people with disabilities, like health care coverage, early childhood intervention, and other forms of support. 

HHS is different from the Department of Education, which oversees federal education programs. This difference is important to understand because of recent changes to federal special education programs.

Before there was a U.S. Department of Education, federal education programs were housed within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). HEW was created in 1953, overseeing government programs related to health, education, and social welfare. 

In 1979, Congress created the Department of Education as a separate agency. Its operations began on May 4, 1980. At the same time, HEW lost its education responsibilities and was renamed the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. opens in a new tab

“HHS does currently administer a number of programs that relate to kids with disabilities,” says Mark Weber, JD,opens in a new tab a professor at DePaul University who specializes in disability law and the legal aspects of special education. 

Some of these programs include:

• Medicaid: Provides health coverage to many kids with disabilities and can pay for services like physical, occupational, and speech therapy.

• Early intervention: HHS helps connect families with early intervention services for young children with developmental delays or disabilities. 

• Head Start and Early Head Start: Screen for developmental concerns, refer kids for evaluation if needed, and provide services to kids with disabilities.

• Children’s health insurance (CHIP): Provides health coverage to kids whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. 

• Autism and developmental disability research: HHS funds and oversees many research projects on these topics.

The move to shift special education to HHS is part of the Trump administration’s larger effort to shrink the Department of Education. In March 2025, President Trump began moving forward with this plan. 

Later that year, the Department of Education began signing agreements with other agencies to move some education programs out of the department. Special education was not one of them. But the Department of Education was shrinking. As Anya Kamenetz reports on the upcoming podcast Zero Reject, “In March 2026, the remaining education staffers were forced to vacate their own headquarters in the Lyndon B. Johnson building and move to a smaller office elsewhere in Washington, DC.”

Whatever the answer may be, IDEA is still the law. 

• IDEA still requires that kids with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). 

• States and school districts are still responsible for providing those services. 

The changes to HHS and the Department of Education impact who handles some of the government’s work behind the scenes. Many of the specifics are still uncertain. 

We do know that HHS will administer the IDEA grants that pay for early intervention (Part C) and special education (Part B). It will also take on enforcement, compliance, and monitoring duties — the work of checking whether states are meeting IDEA’s requirements. 

The Department of Education will handle the 2026 IDEA grants, but HHS will take over the following year.opens in a new tab Roughly $15 billion in federal special education funding moves through these agencies every year. HHS may also begin offering guidance to states and schools about special education policies.

“Some things have already changed,” says Weber. “The administration has laid off large numbers of people in the Department of Education, and the result is that there is less personnel to do oversight or enforcement. One concern is that if responsibilities like providing money, conducting enforcement, and the like are shifted to other agencies, the people carrying them out may be less experienced than the people at the Department of Education.”

Over 100 staff members have already begun moving from the Department of Education to HHS. Kelly Rogers, acting assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), resigned from her role. Kirsten Baesler, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, took over on September 14. 

The Trump administration says the changes will speed up the systems behind special education. U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahonopens in a new tab said the partnership with HHS is intended to “break down the bureaucratic barriers” and better coordinate resources for people with disabilities. 

But disability advocates — like the American Association of People with Disabilitiesopens in a new tab and the Association of University Centers on Disabilitiesopens in a new tab — have raised concerns about moving special educationopens in a new tab to an agency not specifically focused on education. They worry that kids with disabilities could be viewed more through a medical lens, and that families could have a hard time knowing where to find help if they need it. 

There’s also an important legal question: IDEA is a federal law, and only Congress can change federal laws. “There’s a debate over whether the administration can do all that it is trying to do here without action by Congress,” says Weber.

For families, the takeaway is simple: Your child’s IEP and rights as a student aren’t changing. But you may still have questions about who will oversee IDEA, where to bring complaints, and how these changes could affect special education in the future.

Thumbnail image credit: SDI Productions via Getty Images