On Wednesday, a federal decide ordered the Trump administration to instantly cease the mass firing of federal staff throughout the federal government shutdown.
The Trump administration can not subject any extra reduction-in-force notices, and it can not implement the notices already issued, in keeping with the ruling from Choose Susan Illston of the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of California.
The momentary block follows a Sept. 30 lawsuit filed by two unions — the American Federation of Authorities Staff and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Staff — in opposition to the U.S. Workplace of Administration and Finances for violating the legislation when OMB Director Russ Vought threatened a mass firing of federal staff throughout a shutdown.
For the second time this yr, the Trump administration on Oct. 10 laid off a big variety of employees within the U.S. Division of Training, as a part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to abolish the company.
The primary spherical of RIF notices on the Training Division got here in March, main the company to get entangled in a number of lawsuits that challenged the legality of these firings.
Earlier than Trump took workplace on Jan. 20, the division had 4,133 staff. In March, that dwindled to 2,183. The variety of employees then dipped further to an estimated 2,000 after the Oct. 10 firings, which additionally impacted different federal companies practically two weeks after a federal shutdown started after lawmakers failed to succeed in an settlement on the federal funds.
In the meantime, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon mentioned in a X put up on Wednesday that faculties are working as regular regardless of the federal government shutdown, which confirms that the U.S. Division of Training is “pointless.”
“The Division has taken extra steps to higher attain American college students and households and root out the training paperwork that has burdened states and educators with pointless oversight,” McMahon wrote. “No training funding is impacted by the RIF, together with funding for particular training, and the clear CR [continuing resolution] supported by the Trump Administration will present states and faculties the funding they should help all college students.”
Right here’s a timeline of occasions main as much as the company’s newest spherical of RIFs and the continued downsizing of the federal training footprint.
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March 11, 2025
The Training Division introduced a massive reduction in force, with plans to slash practically half of its workforce, impacting all divisions inside the federal company — some “requiring vital reorganization,” in keeping with McMahon.The cuts, together with beforehand accepted worker “buyouts,” lowered the division’s headcount from 4,133 when Trump was inaugurated Jan. 20 to roughly 2,183 — affecting over 1,900 staff.
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March 12, 2025
As a part of the Training Division’s mass downsizing of its employees, the company additionally shuttered seven of its 12 civil rights enforcement places of work. The seven closed places of work of the Training Division’s Workplace for Civil Rights oversaw half of the nation’s states, impacting practically 60,000 public faculties and over 30 million Okay-12 college students.The Trump administration additionally knowledgeable all seven tech-closure-impact-schools/745010/”>Workplace of Academic Know-how staff in an e mail that their positions and workplace have been being “abolished” because the Training Division introduced huge layoffs throughout the company the day prior.
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March 20, 2025
President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on McMahon to “take all needed steps to facilitate the closure of the Division of Training,” marking the boldest push from the president to close down the company since its institution below the Carter administration over 4 many years in the past. -
April 14, 2025
A lawsuit was filed in opposition to the Trump administration over its vital downsizing of the Training Division’s Institute of Education Sciences in March. The lawsuit from the American Academic Analysis Affiliation and the Society for Analysis on Academic Effectiveness mentioned the layoffs made it not possible for IES to hold out training analysis.An analogous lawsuit disputing the IES cuts was filed by the Affiliation for Training Finance and Coverage and the Institute for Greater Training Coverage on April 4 in federal court docket.
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April 17, 2025
Regardless of huge layoffs that left the Training Division with a skeleton crew in command of administering and analyzing the Nation’s Report Card, the company mentioned the evaluation will proceed as deliberate in 2026. -
June 18, 2025
A federal decide ordered the Training Division to reinstate all laid-off Office for Civil Rights employees in the meanwhile, saying the layoffs and shuttering of seven regional places of work had rendered the remaining employees “incapable of addressing the overwhelming majority of OCR complaints.” -
July 14, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court permits the Trump administration to hold on with its efforts to put off practically half the Training Division’s employees as decrease courts weigh in on the layoffs’ legality in New York v. McMahon. -
July 15, 2025
Administration of key federal workforce improvement packages started shifting from the Training Division to the U.S. Division of Labor below an interagency agreement signed in Might, each companies introduced. -
Aug. 19, 2025
Following a federal decide’s order directing that the Training Division be restored to “the established order,” the company mentioned it plans to carry again greater than 260 Office for Civil Rights staff who have been minimize as a part of the March discount in power, and it will likely be returning teams of staff to the civil rights enforcement arm in waves each two weeks from Sept. 8 by means of Nov. 3. -
Sept. 29, 2025
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a decrease court docket’s order requiring the Training Division to revive the Workplace for Civil Rights to the “establishment,” which additionally allowed the division to maneuver ahead with plans to chop half of its OCR employees as litigation proceeds. -
Oct. 1, 2025
The federal authorities enters the first day of its shutdown as Congress stays at a funding deadlock for fiscal yr 2026. Through the shutdown, the Training Division deliberate to furlough about 95% of its non-Federal Scholar Help employees for the primary week, in keeping with a Sept. 28 memo from U.S. Training Secretary Linda McMahon.The Trump administration’s Workplace of Administration and Finances issued a memo per week earlier than that threatened mass firings of federal staff if a authorities shutdown happens, in keeping with a Sept. 30 lawsuit filed by labor unions in opposition to OMB.
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Oct. 10, 2025
The Trump administration issued reduction-in-force notices all through the federal authorities, together with on the Training Division the place court docket filings present 466 Education Department employees have been impacted by the layoffs. A lot of the staff on the Workplace of Particular Training Packages — the place staffing had remained pretty secure — have been laid off as a part of the division’s second wave of RIF notices this yr, in keeping with a number of particular training skilled organizations.The most recent RIFs additionally reached Training Division places of work that oversee civil rights, pupil achievement helps, budgeting companies, faculty security, postsecondary training and extra, in keeping with the American Federation of Authorities Staff, a union representing greater than 2,700 Training Division staff.
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Oct. 15, 2025
A federal decide ordered the Trump administration to stop any mass firings of federal staff initiated throughout the federal government shutdown. The momentary block got here in response to a lawsuit filed by two federal worker unions in opposition to OMB over the workplace’s threats to provoke mass firings forward of the Oct. 1 shutdown.Choose Susan Illston of the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of California mentioned the administration’s issuance of reduction-in-force notices to over 4,000 staff all through the federal authorities throughout the shutdown is prohibited, exceeds the administration’s authority and is bigoted and capricious.
