Programs essential to supporting the recovery of Sandy Hook and Uvalde schools will now be managed by the Department of Health and Human Services (with continued oversight from the Department of Education).
White House says government shutdown ‘proved’ Education Department was unnecessary
Second Linda McMahon announced that the Department of Education would partner with other government agencies to outsource many of its functions.
WASHINGTON – A federal agency run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will take over administration of a multimillion-dollar grant program that helps schools recover from mass shootings and natural disasters, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.
The new deal is the Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle the beleaguered Education Department and disperse its key functions without help from Congress, raising concerns among some school leaders that it could disrupt the funding students and teachers rely on.
McMahon announced on February 23 that his agency will authorize the Kennedy Department of Health and Human Services to administer the grant competition and technical assistance for the School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV) program, which provides funding to schools that have experienced “violence or traumatic events that have disrupted the learning environment.”
In recent years, millions of dollars from the program have gone to schools located at the epicenter of high-profile shootings and disasters. Newtown Public Schools in Connecticut received more than $6 million in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, which killed 26 people, and $3 million went to the Uvalde, Texas, school district where a similar tragedy occurred 10 years later.
The federal Department of Education also awarded approximately $2.2 million to the Hawaii Department of Education through the program after wildfires damaged the state’s schools in 2023.
Project SERV funding for these types of emergencies would now be administered through HHS, but ultimately still overseen by the Department of Education.
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our children,” Kennedy said in a statement. “HHS brings decades of front-line experience responding to crises and disasters and brings that expertise directly to schools. We provide communities with the tools they need to protect students, support teachers, and keep families safe.”
Kennedy has made controversial statements about gun violence in the past, saying last year that he and his peers were “encouraged” to bring guns to school as children. He has linked the rise in school shootings to “overdrugging” of children, but there is a lack of scientific evidence to support that statement.
Secretary McMahon said HHS will take on a larger role in administering some education programs for low-income families. He also announced a separate agreement that gives the State Department responsibility for overseeing universities’ compliance with foreign gift reporting requirements.
“As we continue to dismantle the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states, our new partnership with the Department of State and HHS is a practical step toward increasing efficiency, strengthening collaboration, and making meaningful improvements,” the Secretary of Education said in a statement.
The Trump administration cut the Education Department in half last year and spun off many of its most important departments to other parts of the government. These departments have long administered a wide range of programs to support after-school activities, charter schools, historically black colleges and universities, Title I funding for low-income schools, and more.
White House officials say they are cutting down on bureaucracy, while Democrats in Congress say they are only adding to it.
“These illegal agreements not only create a pointless new bureaucracy that burdens already overworked teachers and schools, but they actively jeopardize the resources and supports that students and families rely on and are entitled to under law,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement.
The Ministry of Education’s unions also rejected recent attempts to reorganize the ministry. Rachel Gittleman, the union’s president, said moving school programs to locations without the appropriate education expertise would create chaos, not efficiency.
“With today’s announcement, the Office of Safe and Supportive Schools will be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency run by someone who frequently spreads conspiracy theories and misinformation about child health,” she said in a statement. “This is an insult to the tens of millions of students who rely on the department to protect their access to quality education and to the taxpayers who rely on federal oversight to prevent waste.”
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social..
