Kelly Rogers, the acting assistant secretary for the Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, announced her resignation on September 9, 2026, effective September 11, less than four months after taking the role in May. NPR reported she said she was returning home to Florida.
The resignation arrives at the same moment the department is physically moving over 100 OSERS staff to the Department of Health and Human Services and 57 Office for Civil Rights employees to the Department of Justice, according to Disability Scoop, which cited AFGE Local 252. The staff relocations implement interagency agreements announced June 16, 2026.
Interagency agreements and statutory authority
On June 16, the Education Department announced four new interagency agreements: HHS will administer programs under OSERS, and DOJ will take on civil rights enforcement activities under OCR. The department stated it will continue to perform all statutorily required duties and responsibilities, according to its own announcement.
Under the ED-HHS agreement, HHS will handle stakeholder outreach, grant administration, enforcement, compliance and monitoring, annual IDEA performance determinations, data collection, reporting, analysis, and drawdowns of federal funds. K-12 Dive reported that OSERS retains management and leadership, coordinates policy and grant document clearance, and provides technical assistance. All FY2026 grants will flow through ED’s G5 system; subsequent grants will be managed through HHS’s GrantSolutions and Payment Management System.
OSERS oversees approximately $15.5 billion in FY2026 for early intervention and K-12 special education services, K-12 Dive reported.
Under the ED-DOJ agreement, OCR will refer complaints to DOJ’s Civil Rights Division for evaluation, investigation, and potential resolution. Government Executive reported that OCR retains management and leadership, makes final determinations on administrative enforcement, continues to facilitate mediation, develop policy guidance, and administer the Civil Rights Data Collection. DOJ will also review Privacy Act complaints and provide technical assistance on school desegregation.
Federal law, the Department of Education Organization Act, assigns legal authority for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and civil rights enforcement in education to the Education Department. As the Maryland Association of Boards of Education noted, this means ED cannot completely eliminate its statutory responsibilities through interagency agreements without congressional action. The agreements change day-to-day implementation, staffing location, and decision-making while retaining formal statutory authority at ED.
Unanswered questions about leadership
Rogers indicated in July 2026 that OSERS staff would move to HHS while she continued to supervise them from the Education Department with additional support by HHS, Disability Scoop reported. Education Department officials did not respond to questions about who would take over for Rogers or how her departure would affect OSERS plans, according to the same report.
Chad Rummel, CEO of the Council for Exceptional Children, told Disability Scoop that the departure of the OSERS leader during the transition creates disorder and lack of certainty for the process. Denise Marshall, CEO of COPAA, said that advocates lacked practical clarity on how the transition would function.
Contested assessments from advocates and former officials
Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, told Disability Scoop that no established plan exists for ensuring IDEA compliance under HHS, and that the system requires leadership and expertise in education.
Catherine Lhamon, who previously ran OCR under Presidents Obama and Biden, warned according to NPR and Houston Public Media that moving civil rights enforcement to DOJ is a poor decision, as the Justice Department lacks both interest and expertise in the work OCR performs. A former Education Department attorney, Jill Siegelbaum, told the same outlets she considers the OCR move unlawful and expects it to make it more difficult for students and families to obtain relief from discrimination.
AFGE Local 252, representing approximately 2,000 current and former Education Department employees, stated that the interagency agreements will deprive vulnerable students and families of needed services and characterized the approach as disorderly rather than efficient.
Earlier transfers and congressional response
Prior to the OSERS and OCR agreements, the Education Department had already entered 10 earlier interagency agreements with the departments of Labor, HHS, Interior, State, and Treasury, the Maryland Association of Boards of Education reported. For career and technical education programs transferred to the Department of Labor, services were not delayed, but grantees faced more points of contact and grants were announced on multiple platforms, according to an association analysis.
AFGE Local 252 stated that previous interagency agreements dividing P-12 and higher education programs among other federal agencies have led to massive delays in congressionally mandated funding and confusion for federal employees and the public alike.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee advanced a bill in July 2026 to block the Education Department from transferring or entering into an agreement with another agency to take over OSERS, Disability Scoop reported. A similar bipartisan proposal was recently introduced in the House of Representatives.
Stephanie Smith Lee, who served as director of the Education Department’s Office of Special Education Programs under President George W. Bush and is now co-director of policy and advocacy at the National Down Syndrome Congress, told Disability Scoop that the transfer will require states, schools and families to interact with multiple agencies for guidance, funding and regulatory matters, and that existing collaboration among offices will be lost.