Overview

• About 95% of Education Department employees outside federal student aid are furloughed in the first week, with plans to recall up to 330 if the shutdown extends, leaving roughly 87% still sidelined.
• Pell Grants and federal loans continue to be disbursed, the FAFSA remains open, and borrowers must keep making payments, according to the agency’s contingency plan.
• Civil-rights investigations are halted and new grantmaking is on hold, though select rulemaking meetings proceed to meet statutory deadlines.
• Payments from targeted programs such as Impact Aid are likely to be disrupted, affecting more than 1,200 school districts across all 50 states.
• The department has already been cut from about 4,100 to about 2,500 employees after layoffs the Supreme Court allowed, and White House budget officials have threatened further firings as colleges brace for backlogs if the shutdown persists.