Federal Programs
Weekly Brief
Curated intelligence for district federal program leads
Provided by EnchantED LLC
House Democrat Files Impeachment Articles Against Secretary McMahon — Charges “Illegal Transfer” of More Than 140 Education Programs
On June 25, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), a senior member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, introduced a resolution to impeach Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, citing violations of her oath of office, false statements to Congress, and the “illegal transfer” of more than 140 programs under the Department of Education to other federal agencies without congressional approval. The resolution, cosponsored by more than 16 House Democrats, alleges McMahon committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” through what Bonamici called a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.” The articles specifically enumerate the interagency agreements transferring ESEA programs to DOL, IDEA programs to HHS, and civil rights enforcement to DOJ — all without statutory authorization from Congress. McMahon responded on social media, writing “To the Democrats in Congress: do better.” House Education Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-MI) defended McMahon, stating she is “doing exactly what voters elected President Trump to do.” The resolution has no realistic path to passage in the Republican-controlled House.
The impeachment articles will not succeed — Republicans control the House and the Senate — but they signal the beginning of a sustained Democratic legislative campaign to reverse or constrain the interagency agreements, and they may generate court filings or oversight hearings that produce additional disclosures about the legal basis and operational status of each agreement. For Indiana districts, this is a political context item, not an operational one. The OSEP-to-HHS and OCR-to-DOJ transfers remain in effect. Continue monitoring IDOE’s Office of Special Education for state-level guidance on how Indiana will interface with the new HHS-administered OSEP structure, and confirm your current IDEA program contact at the federal level before the transition changes contact information.
ED Inspector General Confirms 40% Workforce Reduction “Appears” to Have Eliminated Staff Performing Legally Mandated Functions
The Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General released a significant report on June 23 examining staffing changes between January 20 and March 31, 2025. The OIG found that the department shed at least 1,579 of its 3,902 employees — roughly 40% of the workforce — including 1,227 through reduction-in-force actions and at least 352 through other voluntary separations. The central finding: the elimination of several suboffices in 15 of the department’s 17 offices included some that “appear to have been performing statutory functions or oversight and monitoring functions” — in plain terms, work Congress specifically required the agency to do. The OIG also found the department terminated 129 contracts worth $1.3 billion in total — some of which were for legally required educational studies — and canceled 90 grants with total obligations of nearly $504 million. The department stated it “remains compliant” with its statutory obligations.
This OIG report is the most authoritative independent confirmation to date that ED’s staffing cuts have impaired its capacity to perform work Congress mandated. For Indiana districts, the practical implications include: reduced federal technical assistance and monitoring capacity for programs overseen by eliminated suboffices; slower or no responses to compliance inquiries; and a diminished pipeline of federally produced research, guidance documents, and evidence-based practice resources that districts rely on for consolidated application planning. Districts should increase reliance on IDOE technical assistance, state association resources (IASP, ISBA, IASBO), and peer-network knowledge sharing to fill the federal guidance gap. If your district has a pending federal compliance inquiry that has gone unanswered for more than 60 days, escalate through IDOE’s federal programs contacts.
Trump-Backed Letlow Wins Louisiana Senate Runoff — Reinforces Senate Alignment With Administration Education Agenda
Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) won the Louisiana Republican Senate nomination on June 27, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming in a runoff after Trump’s high-profile endorsement. Letlow will face Democrat Jamie Davis, a northeast Louisiana farmer, in the November 3 general election for the seat formerly held by Sen. Bill Cassidy. In her victory speech, Letlow thanked Trump and called him “the greatest president this country has ever had.” Letlow, a former university administrator who entered Congress in 2021 after her husband Luke Letlow died from COVID-19 before taking office, campaigned as the administration’s choice and drew support from Gov. Jeff Landry and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. She would become Louisiana’s first female Republican U.S. senator if she wins the general election in November.
Letlow’s victory as the Trump-endorsed candidate continues the pattern of administration-aligned Republicans winning Senate primaries, with implications for the FY2027 appropriations conference. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bipartisan bill last week restoring Title II-A and Title III — but Letlow’s arrival in January 2027 (assuming a general election win) would add another administration-aligned vote to a Senate that may face pressure to accept more of the House’s cuts in conference. For Indiana districts, this reinforces the importance of maintaining dual-scenario budget planning for FY2027 and staying current on Senate floor action this summer. The Senate must still pass its own version of the FY2027 bill before conference can begin.
Texas State Board of Education Mandates Bible Passages on K–12 Reading Lists — Federal Program Implications for Title I Districts Nationally
The Texas State Board of Education voted on June 26 to approve a mandatory reading list for public school students that includes passages from the Bible, making Texas the largest state to require Bible-based content in its public school curriculum. The decision follows an executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott directing the board to incorporate the Bible into public school instruction. Texas’s action comes alongside a broader national pattern: multiple states have enacted or are considering legislation requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, and the Supreme Court in 2024 required Maryland to allow curriculum opt-outs for religious content. The Biden-era interpretation of Title I funds as barred from supporting religious instruction has been informally reversed under the current administration.
Indiana has not enacted a comparable Bible curriculum mandate, but the trend is nationally relevant to federal program compliance. Title I funds must be used for secular, neutral, and non-ideological purposes under longstanding ESEA requirements. If Indiana or another state were to enact curriculum mandates with religious content, districts would face a tension between state law compliance and federal fund use restrictions. Indiana federal program coordinators should be aware that the current administration’s ED has signaled reduced enforcement of the Establishment Clause in school programming — but the underlying statute has not changed, and using Title I funds to support religious curriculum instruction would still expose districts to audit findings and potential fund recovery. Consult your district’s legal counsel if any state-level curriculum legislation creates ambiguity in this area.
ED Ended 28 Grants for Training Teachers of English Learners Last Year — Federal EL Teacher Pipeline Now Significantly Narrowed
Education Week reported this week that the Department of Education ended 28 grants specifically designed to train teachers to work with English learners — all terminated in the prior year as part of the administration’s broader pullback from EL-focused federal investments. These grants, funded under the National Professional Development (NPD) program within Title III, supported university-district partnerships training educators in sheltered instruction, language acquisition pedagogy, and bilingual and dual-language program delivery. The terminations follow the administration’s proposal to eliminate Title III entirely in the FY2027 budget, its shuttering of the Office of English Language Acquisition, and the OBBBA’s graduate loan caps on graduate education programs.
Indiana districts with significant English learner populations are increasingly operating without the federal EL teacher training infrastructure that existed even two years ago. OELA is gone, 28 university-based EL teacher training grant programs are terminated, and Title III faces elimination pressure. The practical consequence is that the pipeline of newly trained EL-certified teachers — already constrained — is contracting further. Districts should assess their current EL teacher certification rates and begin planning for potential shortfalls by: engaging Indiana university education programs that still offer EL endorsement coursework; exploring Title II-A funded professional development in sheltered instruction techniques for general education teachers; and leveraging the IDOE’s EL Leadership Meetings and Title III-funded state technical assistance as long as those remain available. Document EL teacher certification data in your consolidated application — this is now a risk-management documentation item, not just a compliance field.
July 1 Is Four Days Away — Final Checklist for OBBBA Student Loan and Program Changes Effective This Week
Multiple provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act take effect Tuesday, July 1, 2026. For Indiana K–12 districts, the operationally significant changes are: (1) Grad PLUS loan program ends for any student who has not yet borrowed in their current graduate program — students not grandfathered under the June 30 cutoff face the $20,500/year, $100,000 lifetime Direct Unsubsidized Loan cap; (2) Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) launches as the only new income-driven repayment option — borrowers on SAVE will begin receiving 90-day servicer notices to select a new plan; (3) PAYE and ICR close to new enrollees; (4) PSLF employer qualification rule takes effect — borrows on RAP plans longer than 10 years do not earn PSLF credit unless they actively elect a standard 10-year plan; (5) Workforce Pell Grant launches for short-term credential programs; and (6) Indiana’s five-year charter school moratorium takes effect, prohibiting any new charter authorizations through 2031.
If you have not yet communicated the OBBBA student loan changes to your staff, do it today. The June 30 Grad PLUS grandfathering cutoff has passed as of this issue’s publication — staff who were in eligible programs and had borrowed before July 1 retain access under the grandfather exception; staff who were not yet enrolled or had not yet borrowed lose it permanently. The most urgent remaining action is ensuring that any staff member pursuing PSLF is not automatically placed on a RAP plan with a repayment period longer than 10 years — this is a PSLF disqualification risk that staff must actively manage by contacting their servicer. Encourage staff to visit studentaid.gov and contact their loan servicer before August 1, when the first servicer transition notices will begin arriving in volume.
IDOE Begins Releasing ESSA Waiver Implementation Guidance — Title II-A/IV-A District Pilot Applications Expected by Late Summer
IDOE began releasing initial implementation guidance this week for Indiana’s newly approved “Returning Education to the States” ESSA waiver. Internal communications to federal program coordinators indicate the state-level funding consolidation of the five combined formula streams — Title II-A, Title III-A, Title IV-A, state assessment funds, and 21st CCLC state reserves — will be reflected in revised FY2027 subgrant notices and consolidated application guidance. The 15% Title II-A/Title IV-A district pilot is expected to be opened for applications through the IDOE eCivis Grants Portal in late summer 2026, with awards made before the FY2027 school year. Districts interested in the pilot are encouraged to contact their IDOE program liaison and confirm Title II-A and Title IV-A current-year allocation statuses before the window opens.
The waiver’s operational implementation is now underway. Indiana federal program coordinators should take three immediate actions: (1) review your district’s FY2026 Title II-A and Title IV-A allocation notices and confirm how those funds are currently being spent and reported; (2) contact your IDOE program liaison to confirm whether your district would be in the eligible 15% for the consolidation pilot and what the application process will entail; and (3) review your district’s consolidated application to flag any sections that reference Title II-A or Title III funding streams in ways that may need updating to reflect the new waiver-enabled structure. Revised consolidated application guidance from IDOE is expected before the FY2027 planning cycle begins in earnest in August.
Six weeks remain. Applications should be in active draft. Given the termination of 28 federal EL teacher training grants and the broader contraction of federally supported educator pipelines, the SBMH competition is one of the few federal mental health funding avenues still open. Document psychologist-to-student ratios using 2025–26 data and connect your recruitment barrier narrative to Grad PLUS loan elimination impacts on school psychology pipelines.
Begin preparing now by confirming current Title II-A and Title IV-A allocation amounts and spending patterns. Contact your IDOE program liaison to understand eligibility and reporting requirements before the window opens. Consult legal counsel before opting in — consolidation changes how funds are documented and may affect their use as match or supplement in competitive grants.
Awards are announced in August/September — the application window is closing soon. Apply now based on current CSI/TSI designation. The new Indiana A–F high school accountability system takes effect 2026–27 and may change which schools are identified for future cohorts — this may be your last opportunity under a current designation. Funded with stable Title I school improvement dollars.
Two weeks remaining. If you have not started your comment, start this week. Focus on: the real-world drawdown justification burden on LEA subrecipients under IDOE pass-through awards; the ambiguity of the DEI cost prohibition for EL instruction, family engagement, and professional development; and the lack of any transition period for in-flight multi-year awards. Coordinate with district legal counsel and consider joining AASA, IDOE, or NSBA coalition submissions.
When Federal Capacity Contracts, State Relationships Become Your Primary Compliance Infrastructure
The Education Department’s OIG has now confirmed what practitioners have experienced for more than a year: the 40% workforce reduction eliminated staff performing congressionally mandated functions. Federal guidance is slower, less comprehensive, and less reliable than it was in 2024. The interagency agreements have scattered program oversight across HHS, DOJ, DOL, and other agencies in ways that remain operationally unclear. And the proposed UGR, if finalized, will make grant compliance more burdensome while also giving agencies new tools to terminate or reshape grants mid-award.
For Indiana federal program coordinators, this is not a crisis — it is a structural shift that requires a deliberate reorientation of where you look for guidance, technical assistance, and compliance support. The practical implication is that your primary compliance infrastructure is now IDOE, not ED. When you have a Title I question, your first call is your IDOE program specialist. When you need technical assistance on EL programming, you call IDOE’s Office of English Learning. When you have a special education IDEA compliance question, you contact IDOE’s Office of Special Education — not OSEP, which has now transferred to HHS and whose contact information may be in flux.
What strong districts are doing now: Building and maintaining a current, documented contact list for every federal program — IDOE program specialist name, phone, and email; state association resource contact; and the relevant AASA or NAFEPA federal policy team that tracks changes. Participating in IDOE-hosted virtual meetings and webinars even when the topics seem peripheral — these are now your best early-warning system for federal program changes. And documenting compliance decisions with a paper trail that shows what guidance you relied on, when you requested it, and how you applied it — because if ED’s capacity to conduct monitoring has contracted, the monitoring that does happen will likely be higher-stakes and more adversarial than in prior years.
July 1 arrives this week — monitor for any student loan servicer system issues or delays in RAP transition notices and document anything that affects staff pursuing PSLF. Watch for IDOE to release revised consolidated application guidance reflecting the new ESSA waiver structure, and for the eCivis portal to post the Title II-A/IV-A consolidation pilot eligibility information. The UGR comment deadline is July 13 — two weeks remain to submit. And with the SBMH application deadline on August 10, application drafts should now be at or near completion. Monitor Senate floor action on the FY2027 Labor-HHS-Education bill, which if it passes will formally establish the Senate’s position heading into fall conference negotiations with the House.