TAMPA, Fla. — The government shutdown is now affecting the U.S. Department of Education.
While millions of federal workers are now furloughed or working without pay, around 3,500 have been laid off, which includes more than 450 at the Department of Education, many of whom are said to be special education staff.
Watch full report from Annette Gutierrez
Currently, there are more questions than answers, particularly regarding the staff members who were let go and how this could impact them locally.
Tampa Bay 28 reporter Annette Gutierrez spoke with parents and advocates of kids with special needs, who say they are is a lot of fear in the unknown.
"It's a bit scary because any time you hear cuts you think, this is gonna reduce, this is going to impact us probably in a negative way, but the reality is we don't know, we don't know exactly what this is gonna look like," said Will Haynes, the Vice President of the Hillsborough County Special Education Parent Teacher Association.
After learning about the layoffs, Gutierrez caught up with Will Haynes, a Hillsborough County parent of a child in second grade, who has an IEP or Individualized Education Plan. It’s a legal document that outlines the special services a student with a disability needs to succeed in school.
"What is the long-term plan for this?" asked Haynes. "Are these layoffs part of a bigger piece, like getting rid of education, special education, or is it just a leverage piece in the current government shutdown?"
The unknown impact of the staffing cuts at the Department of Education comes as the federal government shutdown now enters its 3rd week.
When Tampa Bay 28 reached out to the U.S. Department of Education for clarification, the department responded back to our email saying:
"Thank you for contacting the press team. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations, we are currently in furlough status. We will respond to emails once government functions resume."
"We want to believe that at the local level every school is going to continue trying to do the right thing and take care of all of our kids, but if they get to the decision of we only have this much funding and where's it going to go that might result in some cuts that impact us locally," said Haynes.
Haynes said while he doesn’t work with the U.S. Department of Education on a day-to-day basis, he knows the federal agency provides oversight to make sure the local education systems are being held accountable.
The federal workers are also responsible for distributing the dollars associated with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which amounts to roughly $15-billion dollars.
"In order to change a law, would require Congress to basically dismantle that, not just one person in the White House, but yet, you know, Congress," said Stacey Hoaglund, the CEO of the Disability Advocacy and Support Specialists. "And they need to have a majority to do that. And there has been no discussion from either side to do away with IDEA as law of protection."
The Disability Advocacy and Support Specialists is an organization that provides free advocacy to families of children with disabilities in the public school system.
Hoaglund said he is worried about what this could mean to oversight and funding on schools at a local level.
"That is also one of the roles of government - it's supposed to be set up to take care of its most fragile, its elderly, and when we see things like this, we have to question whether that is at the forefront of their thought processes or not," said Hoaglund.
Although the education department's responsibilities could be transferred to another department, it remains unclear how this would affect students in need.
"No matter what side you sit on when it comes to politics, I don't think anybody disagrees that it's - nobody can guess at what's coming next, and that leaves us all a little apprehensive," said Hoaglund.
Tampa Bay 28 sent an email to Hillsborough County schools asking about how these staffing changes on the federal level could impact the students, and a spokesperson responded, saying they have not gotten any communication about how this will impact funding.
Again, still a lot of questions, and we may not know the true impact until the government reopens.
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