Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

11. Department of Education · Major · Needs Congress

Convert most IDEA funding into a no-strings block grant run by HHS

Not started

326 11. Department of Education

“Most IDEA funding should be converted into a no-strings formula block grant targeted at students with disabilities and distributed directly to local education agencies by Health and Human Service's Administration for Community Living.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    IDEA money still flows as an ED formula grant under all of IDEA's conditions. The 2026-06-16 ED-HHS Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Partnership is a coordination agreement under the Economy Act: its fact sheet names Head Start, Medicaid, CHIP, the Title V block grant and the Administration on Disabilities as programs to align with, states that "this partnership does not alter" the federal duty to enforce IDEA, and moves no funding. The Administration for Community Living is not given a distribution role, and no bill converts IDEA into a block grant.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Negative search: no bill in the 119th Congress corpus converts IDEA funding to a block grant. The IDEA bills on file run the other way — the IDEA Full Funding Act (H.R. 2598 / S. 1277, April 2025) would raise the federal share, and S. 5038, the “Special Education Administration Protection Act” (2026-07-21), would keep special education administration at ED. Both were referred to committee.
  • The Department was still running IDEA discretionary competitions in 2026 (for example the 2026-04-17 State Personnel Development Grants notice, FR 2026-07564, and the 2026-05-18 personnel-preparation competitions), and still publishing IDEA data-collection rules.
  • The distinct ask of moving IDEA oversight and implementation to HHS is #873; the 2026-06-16 agreement is scored there.
Action
transfer
Object
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding
ID
816