The U.S. Department of Education (ED) provided Congress with notice of its intent to dissolve the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) earlier this year, according to a letter recently obtained by Education Week. The letter was sent in February to leadership of the House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over education and was also provided to appropriations committee and subcommittee leadership.
The letter states that ED will move administration of the Title III-A program under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to the Division of State Support and Accountability (SSA) within the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Title III-A had previously been administered by SSA but was reorganized to OELA under the Biden Administration. The Native American and Alaska Native Children in School Program will shift to the Office of Indian Education, and the National Professional Development Program will be administered by the Office of Effective Educator Development Programs. After its staff was cut in a reduction in force (RIF) last year, OELA has been operating with a single employee. Some of these programs are scheduled to be transferred to other federal agencies as well, as part of the interagency agreements being implemented by the administration. ESEA Title III-A will move to the U.S. Department of Labor later this year, and many Native American programs will be taken over by the Bureau of Indian Education.
The letter, signed by the Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Congressional Affairs, states that “[m]oving these programs to other offices will better streamline and align services to [English learners (ELs)}, reducing burden and empowering states to tailor support to the needs of their unique EL populations.”
Although OELA is a required office under the Department of Education Organization Act (DEOA), which established ED and its components, the Secretary of Education does have some authority to alter or reorganize the agency within the confines of that law. The DEOA outlines all the offices and units that ED was required to establish when the agency initially opened, but it allows the Secretary to “consolidate, alter, or discontinue” some of those entities and their functions. OELA, as well as 10 other units may be reorganized so long as the Secretary provides Congress with notice of the proposed action and justification, though ED must wait 90 days after notification to follow through. The 90-day notification period for the OELA move ends on May 13th.
The February notification appears to be the first such action initiated by the Secretary of Education, but it builds upon other initiatives over the last year to downsize ED, including RIFs and the implementation of interagency agreements to transfer program administration to other federal agencies. While the administration cannot completely dismantle ED without Congressional action, it continues to push toward complete closure to the extent allowed under its current authority. ED has not made public any plans to take similar action for additional offices or units, but other offices for which the Secretary has the authority to make alterations that could be targeted in the future include the Office of Indian Education and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). ED gutted NCES as part of the RIF last year and also plans to transfer out Native American programs later this year.
Resources:
Ileana Najarro, “Ed. Dept. Moves to Shutter Its Office for English Learners,” Education Week, April 14, 2026.
