According to a February 2, 2026 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) spent nearly $1 million per week on salaries for Office of Civil Rights (OCR) enforcement staff it had put on administrative leave beginning in March 2025, paying up to $38 million in total through December 2025. In fact, between March and September 2025, while the majority of OCR staff were on leave due to the agency’s reductions in force, the office received more than 9,000 complaints and resolved a total of 7,072 complaints. It did so by dismissing 90% of them.

OCR was among the offices hit hardest by the USDE’s March reduction in force (RIFs), with more than half of its staff put on administrative leave and seven of of its 12 regional offices closed. Other offices heavily impacted by the agency’s RIFs include the English Language Acquisition office, which was entirely shuttered, as well as the Federal Student Aid office and the Institute of Education Sciences.

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On February 2, 2026 the FY26 education funding bill was finally signed into law. As a result, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) is now funded for fiscal year 2026. The compromise measure won final approval from the U.S. House by a 217-214 vote. The budget funds the USDE at $79 billion through September 30, 2026, which is approximately $217 million above FY 2025 levels. The bill requires on-time formula grant funding available to states and school districts at levels dictated by Congress in the funding bill. It also adds a new requirement to maintain the USDE staff at levels necessary to fulfill its statutory responsibilities, including carrying out programs and activities funded in the bill.

However, the funding plan does not put a halt to USDE efforts to transfer statutorily required program responsibilities to other federal agencies, but it directs the agencies involved to provide Congress with biweekly reports on the implementation of any interagency agreements.

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Assistive technology (AI) in schools can run the gamut of low-tech tools like pencil grips and swivel chairs to high-tech ones like large mobile touch screens and voice recognition software.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires a student’s individualized education program (IEP) team to consider AI use, at no cost to the student, for every student receiving special education services. However, according to a January 30, 2026 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, not much is known about how this requirement is implemented as school staff are challenged by limited knowledge of how AI can help students with disabilities participate more fully in learning, as well as the rapid pace of changes in tech.

Other factors like insufficient time and opportunities for training, staff shortages and high turnover, technology compatibility issues, and funding constraints also create hurdles for the use of AI in schools, the GAO study found. Strategies some school districts are using to overcome these barriers include forming AI teams that create standardized processes to identify the best tech for students’ individualized needs and to coordinate procurement processes, the report said.

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Identical U.S. House and Senate legislation is drawing bipartisan support for attempts to modernize identifications for children with reading challenges, although some disability rights advocacy groups and education organizations caution the move could put struggling readers further behind.

Specifically, the 21st Century Dyslexia Act proposes that IDEA definition of a “child with a disability” adds dyslexia as a 14th category of disabilities that qualifies a student for special education services. 

Currently, dyslexia is named as one of several disorders under the specific learning disabilities category.

The bills in Congress — S 3010 and HR 5769 — define dyslexia as an “unexpected difficulty in reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader, most commonly caused by a difficulty in the phonological processing (the appreciation of the individual sounds of spoken language), which affects the ability of an individual to speak, read, and spell.”

The U.S. Education Department does not collect data specifically on the number of students with dyslexia. According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, dyslexia affects 20% of the population and represents 80% to 90% of all those with learning disabilities. It is the most common neurocognitive disorder, according to the center.

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