Education Department layoffs hit offices that oversee special education and civil rights enforcement

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Trump administration orders 466 layoffs at the Education Department .

Cuts reduce staff overseeing special education , civil rights , and after-school programs .

Department workforce will shrink to under 2,000, down from 4,100 in 2017.

Unions and advocates warn layoffs threaten compliance with federal education laws and funding distribution.

A new round of layoffs at the Education Department is depleting an agency that was hit hard in the Trump administration’s previous mass firings, threatening new disruption to the nation’s students and schools in areas from special education to civil rights enforcement to after-school programs.

The Trump administration started laying off 466 Education Department staffers on Friday amid mass firings across the government mea