On November 18, 2025, the United States Department of Education (ED) announced six new interagency agreements (IAAs) with the Departments of Labor (DOL), Interior (DOI), Health and Human Services (HHS), and State (DOS). The purpose of these agreements, made under The Economy Act of 1935, is to improve the quality of the services delivered while eliminating layers of federal bureaucracy and restoring authority to states and parents.

These agreements represent the most significant structural education reform in decades. By having ED partner with agencies that already possess the operational expertise and institutional knowledge to administer programs more effectively, the Trump Administration is streamlining federally funded activities, reducing administrative burdens on states, and fulfilling President Trump’s commitment to return education to the states.

"The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states. Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

KEY INTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS

Under these IAAs, ED will retain oversight and final control over its statutory obligations while partnering with agencies that are better equipped to administer federal laws.

1. Elementary and Secondary Education Partnership with the Department of Labor

• Purpose: Strengthen alignment between K-12 education and workforce needs, while simplifying federal program administration.
• What changes:
  • DOL takes a greater role in administering select K-12 programs, including the largest source of federal funding – Title I, from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended.
  • Provide greater assistance to states that choose to further emphasis career, technical, and vocational education in their K-12 systems. Better integration of academic, workforce and college-readiness pipelines.
  • DOL manages grant competitions, provides technical assistance, and aligns ED’s K-12 programs with the nation’s education and workforce systems.

• Purpose: To connect and streamline ED and DOL postsecondary programs so they are more efficiently administered and better aligned to regional and national workforce needs.
• What changes:
  • DOL administers most postsecondary grant programs under the Higher Education Act.
  • ED and DOL programs are aligned to strengthen education-workforce outcomes.
  • DOL integrates higher education programs into existing workforce systems and manages grant funds and technical support.

• Purpose: Improve Native American education by aligning all federal programs serving Tribes through DOI.
• What changes:
  • DOI becomes the primary administrator of Indian Education programs across K-12, higher education, CTE, and vocational rehabilitation.
  • Tribal governments gain a single point of contact for federal programs, reducing duplicative reporting requirements where permissible.

4. Foreign Medical Accreditation Partnership with Department of Education & Health and Human Services

• Purpose: Leverage HHS’s medical and scientific expertise to evaluate foreign medical school accreditation standards.
• What changes:
  • HHS oversees the work of the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA)
  • Supports NCFMEA in determining whether foreign medical programs meet U.S. accreditation standards.

5. Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) Partnership with Department of Health and Human Services

• Purpose: Streamline the administration of CCAMPIS, which subsidizes on-campus daycare for low-income parents enrolled in college, through HHS to better support student-parents.
• What changes:
  • HHS — already responsible for other major childcare programs — administers CCAMPIS grants and provides technical assistance.
  • HHS integrates CCAMPIS with broader childcare systems to improve consistency and service delivery.
  • Reduced confusion for institutions navigating duplicative federal requirements.

6. International Education and Foreign Language Studies Partnership with the State Department

• Purpose: Consolidate federal leadership for Fulbright-Hays programs and align international education with U.S. national security priorities.
• What changes:
  • DOS administers and streamlines funding, data collection, and oversight for the Fulbright-Hays programs and related international education programs.
  • Ensures foreign-language and international-study program advance U.S interests abroad.

Why these agreements matter?

1. A Strategic Realignment of Federal Responsibilities

• Each partnership leverages interagency expertise to improve administration of select ED programs.
• This improves efficiency and clarifies reporting responsibilities.
• By aligning administration through agencies that already manage related programs, this reduces the inconvenience of requiring states to navigate multi-agency processes for their educational programs.

2. A Leaner, More Accountable Federal Bureaucracy

• The IAAs reduce duplication and streamline grant-management processes.
• They also align federally funded education programs with workforce, health, tribal, and/or foreign-policy systems.

3. A Return to State Leadership

• As Department of Education reduces its administrative footprint, it will have more bandwidth to focus on returning control of education to the states.

THIS REFORM DELIVERS ON PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PROMISE TO DISMANTLE THE FEDERAL EDUCATION BUREAUCRACY AND RETURN CONTROL TO STATES AND PARENTS.