Our team has been crisscrossing the country these past few weeks, making the most of valued in-person time with district, non-profit, and company leaders before the holiday season approaches.
We look forward to sharing more insights from these trips in the coming weeks, but, for now, a few highlights:
Thomas kicked things off in Albany at the SUNY New Paltz Leading Literacy Summit before heading to Denver for the Communications Network’s annual conference, where Carlos, Natalia, and colleagues hosted a dinner for clients and friends.
Carlos (our travel warrior!) then made his way to Memphis for Grantmakers for Education.
And, Anna and our K-12 team were in Philadelphia for the Council of the Great City Schools’ Fall Conference.
In this week’s edition, we round up the “Top 10 Articles of the Week” and take a closer look at:
Trump Admin Eyes Moving Special Education Out of the Education Department
Learning Heroes’ Report on 10 Years of Family Engagement Research
Education on the 2025 Ballot
State Waiver Requests Under ESSA
Top 10 Articles of the Week from W/A’s What We’re Reading Newsletter
Survey Says: Higher Ed Moving in “Wrong Direction” [Inside Higher Ed]
Schools and families can’t wait for big tech to solve the risks of AI [District Administration]
Government shutdown imperils dozens of Head Start preschool programs [Associated Press]
The Villains on Pre-K TV Are Cuddly, Annoying and … Morally Interesting [The New York Times]
Why Impact Investing Might Collapse and How to Stop It [Stanford Social Innovation Review]
Trump Admin Eyes Moving Special Education Out of the Education Department
The Trump administration is advancing plans to shift federal oversight of special education away from the U.S. Department of Education—potentially to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—as part of its broader effort to dismantle the department and return authority to the states. [USA Today]
Driving the news: Education Secretary Linda McMahon has made clear that her goal is to “put herself out of a job by shutting down the Department of Education,” a spokesperson told multiple outlets this week.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madi Biedermann confirmed the department is “exploring additional partnerships” with other federal agencies to manage special education programs—though no formal agreement has been signed. [The New York Times, subscription model; K-12 Dive]
The discussions come just days after layoffs at the department during the ongoing government shutdown, which eliminated roughly 121 employees in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and a total of 465 employees across the agency.
Those firings are part of a larger downsizing effort: the department now employs about half the staff it had at the start of the year.
A federal judge has since ordered the administration to pause mass firings of federal workers during the shutdown
Why it matters
The proposal could shift oversight of the $15 billion Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) program. Such a move would not be entirely unprecedented: recall that education activities fell under the control of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare prior to the creation of the U.S. Department of Education. The statutes that have evolved into the modern day IDEA were initially passed in 1975, five years before the Department of Education came into existence. [The Washington Post, subscription model]
Between the lines
Secretary McMahon and President Trump have both named HHS—led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—as a potential home for special education oversight. Kennedy has said his agency is “fully prepared” to take on responsibility for individuals with special needs.
The bottom line
Changes to the administration of the federal law, including efforts to “return education to the states,” would not necessarily reduce local funding or erode federal statutory requirements that schools provide individualized support and services for students with disabilities.
Centering Families in the Future of Education: Learning Heroes Marks 10 Years of Family Engagement Research
On Tuesday, iconic nonprofit, Learning Heroes released its 10-Year Anniversary Report, which distills a decade of research and work with families, educators, and community partners to identify ten actionable insights for strengthening family-school partnerships.
As Learning Heroes Founder and CEO Bibb Hubbard put it: “Parents today have unprecedented voice and choice in their children’s education, yet, too often, lack the information to make confident, informed decisions. With a decade of insights from parents, students, teachers, and principals, we have a clearer roadmap for creating schools and communities that work in true partnership with families and help every child thrive.”
Key Insights from the report:
Mind the gap: Perception vs. reality. Nearly 88% of parents believe their child is at/above grade level in reading and math, yet national benchmark data indicate closer to 30% of eighth graders meet proficiency — signaling that families need clearer, more complete information to act early.
Reckon with report cards. Parents often rely on grades to know how their child is progressing. But grades reflect more than just mastery of a subject, including effort and participation, and can mask grade-level achievement. When parents see clear measures — state and formative assessments, for example — their belief that their child is on grade level drops from 92% to 44%, and prompts them to take action.
Spark action through awareness. 97% of parents who know their child is behind in math report concern about their child’s math skills, and they’re far more likely to raise issues with teachers (74% vs. 50% of all parents).
To explore all ten insights and read the full report, click here.
Education on the 2025 Ballot
Less than two weeks to go until election day, and while most 2025 ballot measures focus on taxes and governance, several states are asking voters to weigh in on proposals that could shape the education landscape:
Texas Proposition 1 would create two new funds to strengthen the Texas Technical College System, signaling continued investment in workforce and technical education.
Texas Proposition 15 seeks to enshrine parental rights in the state constitution, granting parents explicit authority over decisions related to their child’s education.
Colorado Proposition MM would raise $95 million annually for the Healthy School Meals for All Program by limiting high-income tax deductions, while Proposition LL ensures the state can retain and spend excess revenue from that same initiative.
Ballot propositions can serve as a bellwether for state priorities, and education remains a perennial focus in addressing how schools are funded, governed, and supported.
State Waiver Requests under ESSA
States are tapping into longstanding flexibility under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and testing the bounds with which the Department of Education (ED) will approve waiver requests related to assessments and funding.
To date, 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Bureau of Indian Education have submitted requests for ESEA flexibility. W/A Research dug into the requests that impact state assessment, accountability, and funding.
ED issued a “Dear Colleague” letter on July 29, 2025 encouraging states to request waivers under section 8401 of ESEA. In that letter, ED highlighted potential flexibility around: (1) assessment and accountability requirements, (2) funding and flexibility, and (3) other compliance burdens. The letter also emphasized the provisions that cannot be waived, including those related to the allocation of funds, maintenance of effort, and civil rights provisions.
As the government shutdown nears its fourth week, there is continued uncertainty and limitations in ED’s capacity to review waivers, meaning that even submitted waiver requests are likely to sit pending longer than normal. ED may take up to 120 days to respond to a waiver request.
Focus State: Indiana
On July 24, 2025, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) announced it would be seeking a waiver from ED aimed at reducing “bureaucratic compliance” and giving local schools more flexibility. It invited the public to comment on the proposed flexibility request.
On October 17, 2025, the state formally submitted its waiver request to ED to pilot a consolidated block grant of ESEA programs (Title I-Title IV) and use Indiana's state accountability model to satisfy both federal and state accountability requirements (A-F system is in development), and streamline reporting and monitoring of local districts.
Governor Mike Braun framed the waiver as part of a broader effort to “cut red tape” and “return education to the states,” aligning with the Trump administration’s stated goal of expanding state discretion over federal funds. If approved, Indiana would become the first state in nearly a decade to pilot a block-grant-style consolidation of ESEA programs, setting a potential precedent for other states seeking greater fiscal flexibility.
Read more: Chalkbeat Indiana Coverage – September, 2025
Why it Matters
For Indiana’s case and similar ones, the greatest policy risk/attention is around: (a) block-granting federal funds and reducing program-specific restrictions (which raises equity and targeting questions) and (b) using state accountability models in place of federal systems (which raises transparency and comparability questions).
Advocacy groups, including The Education Trust, National Urban League, and others, have raised concerns about recent state ESEA waiver proposals—warning that approval could risk weakening transparency and equity protections for historically underserved students.
Because the government shutdown has impacted staffing/processing, states should expect longer review times. States waiting on ED approvals should monitor whether ED issues delays, requests for revisions, or outright denials.
Given the administration’s desire to give as much flexibility to states as possible, we expect more states to submit waiver requests in late 2025 and early 2026—so the list will grow.
ACT announced that Steve Tapp has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. Tapp most recently served as CEO of Lifelong Learner Holdings, the parent company of PSI Services.
Check out W/A Jobs, which features 3,489 career opportunities from 312 organizations across the education industry. A few roles that caught our eye over the past week:
ClassDojo is hiring a remote Demand Generation Lead to own the organization’s B2B marketing funnel from awareness to opportunity generation
Brisk Teaching is hiring a remote Senior Demand Generation Manager to design, write, and execute campaigns that drive demand among K–12 districts and schools
Clever is hiring a remote Software Engineering Apprentice to support the company’s software development team
FutureFit AI is hiring a remote Growth Manager to design and run the campaigns, processes, and experiments that fuel predictable growth across the US and Canada
Discovery Education is hiring a Charlotte-based Director of Customer Marketing to architect and lead the design of end-to-end lifecycle programs that deepen customer engagement, increase product adoption, and drive long-term growth
Upcoming Events and Convenings
Quality Matters: QM Connect Conference: Impact Through Quality Connections, November 3-5, Tucson, AZ.
P3•EDU: Innovation and Public-Private Partnerships in Higher Education hosted by Georgia Tech, November 3–5, Atlanta, GA.
Bowie State University: HBCU+ Entrepreneur Conference: Charting New Frontiers: Deep Tech, AI, and Innovation, November 7, Virtual.
Consortium for School Networking: Student Screen Time Pros and Cons: The CoSN 2025 Blaschke Report, November 10 at 5 p.m. ET, Virtual.
C-BEN: CBExchange 2025: Wrangling Skills in This Wild, Wild West Environment, November 10-13, Phoenix, AZ.
Human Potential Network: Human Potential Summit, November 12-13, Deer Valley, UT.
Branching Minds: Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) Virtual Summit: Innovation with Intention, December 3-4, Virtual.
AASA: National Conference on Education: The Future is Ready, February 12-14, 2025, Nashville, TN.
