ED Seeks Tribal Feedback on Interagency Agreements

As the Department of Education (ED) continues to sign interagency agreements (IAA) aiming to transition responsibilities to other federal agencies, it is seeking comments from American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian tribes addressing how implementing the IAAs will affect the tribal communities.

In November 2025, ED announced six new IAAs with the departments of the Interior (DOI), Labor (DOL), State, and Health and Human Services that it said will “ensure efficient delivery of funded programs, activities and move closer to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to return education to the states” under Executive Order 14242, Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States and Communities. Although officially dismantling ED would require the approval of Congress, the agency is using these IAAs as a workaround to move current ED grant programs to other agencies. Even though the administration has severely cut ED staff and issued these IAAs, ED still has statutory responsibilities for administering many of these programs.

The IAA with DOI developed the Indian Education Partnership, aimed at improving Native American education by allowing DOI, with oversight from ED, to take on a greater role in administering Indian education programs relating to elementary and secondary education, higher education, career and technical education, and vocational rehabilitation. The IAA will impact several Native American programs now overseen by ED’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), OPE and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, as well as the Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Career and Technical Institutions program overseen by the ED Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education.

ED explained that the purposes of the IAAs with DOI and DOL are to “(1) uphold the rights of native families; (2) reduce reporting requirements to the extent permissible under the law; (3) assist native youth and adults to receive high quality education, pursue high wages, meet job demands and build skills; (4) enable administrative reform of policies and programmatic requirements; and (5) improve processes to enhance both applicant and grantee experiences.”

In a recent memo announcing a Feb. 10 meeting from 1:30-5:30 p.m. Eastern time at the National Museum of the American Indian, ED provided copies of the IAAs with DOI and DOL, as well as ED’s tribal consultation policy. Click here to register for the meeting. ED also will accept written public comments through March 12 about this topic, and comments may be sent via TribalConsultation@ed.gov.

The memo added that ED is particularly interested in getting tribal feedback on the following questions:

• How can ED, DOI and DOL best ensure continuity and stability of funding, services and support to tribal communities during and after the transition of program administration under the IAAs?
• What specific roles, responsibilities and coordination mechanisms should be established among ED, DOI and DOL to ensure clear accountability and avoid creating additional layers of federal bureaucracy in administering tribal education programs?
• In what ways should the federal government strengthen consultation, communication and partnership with tribal nations throughout the implementation of the IAAs to ensure tribal voices meaningfully inform decisions affecting tribal education programs?
• What safeguards, oversight mechanisms and performance measures should be put in place to ensure that the partnership of program administration strengthens services to native students, families and communities?
• How can the IAAs better support tribal sovereignty, honor federal trust and treaty obligations, and ensure that tribal education institutions maintain the expertise, relationships and capacity they have built with federal partners over time?
• What impact do tribal leaders anticipate as a result of programs being comanaged in conjunction with DOL and DOI?

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