A Big Shift for Education: What Happens Following President Trump’s Executive Order?

President Donald Trump signed an executive order March 20, 2025 titled Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities. The order seeks to advance a goal previously promised by the president: to close the Department of Education (ED) and give state education departments authority over education standards. The closure of the ED raises questions for students with developmental disabilities and their families, who rely on various programs and services offered by the ED. What does this change mean?The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD) is driven by its Five Year Strategic Plan goals to improve services and supports for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities (I/DD). The Council, charged with creating systems change for individuals with developmental disabilities and family members, will work through various advocacy and capacity building activities to build a more interdependent, self-sufficient, and integrated and included disability community across Georgia.This project was supported, in part by grant number 2001GASCDD-03, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.