Sponsor
Bill Cassidy
Senator · R-LA
Senator · R-LA
The bill preserves Department of Education control over OSERS and grandfathered ED–HHS arrangements to avoid service disruptions, but it reduces flexibility for HHS collaboration and creates administrative uncertainty about permissible post-2025 arrangements.
People with disabilities, their families, and providers will avoid immediate service disruptions because ED-HHS arrangements in effect on Feb 1, 2025 are grandfathered and may be renewed.
Schools, state and local education agencies, and program administrators will keep OSERS authority and decision-making within the Department of Education rather than moving oversight to HHS.
Federal agencies, contractors, and program managers will face administrative uncertainty about what interagency or contractor arrangements are permissible after 2025, which could delay procurements and program changes.
State and local governments and schools may lose the ability to draw on HHS expertise or economies of scale for special education services, potentially raising costs and slowing program improvements.
People with disabilities and schools could experience less coordinated health-related services if the change complicates future ED–HHS collaboration.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Stops the Department of Education from using HHS to perform OSERS functions going forward while preserving arrangements that existed on Feb 1, 2025.
Official title: Prohibit the transfer of the functions of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
Introduced July 21, 2026 by Bill Cassidy · Last progress July 21, 2026
Prohibits the U.S. Secretary of Education from transferring, contracting out, or arranging for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to perform functions of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), except for preexisting arrangements saved by the bill. It also removes several statutory authorities that would otherwise allow future interagency procurement, contracting, or transfers for those OSERS functions while allowing arrangements that existed on February 1, 2025 to continue and be renewed. The law therefore narrows the Department of Education's ability to use HHS for OSERS-related activities going forward while grandfathering and permitting renewal of interagency agreements already in effect on the specified date.