U.S. Education Department switches to remote work amid talk of layoffs

A man walks past the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 7. Gent Shkullaku/ZUMA Press Wire via Alamy hide caption

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Gent Shkullaku/ZUMA Press Wire via Alamy

Employees of the U.S. Department of Education received an email on Tuesday, advising them to vacate all department offices by 6:00 pm. Staff were instructed by the department's Office of Security, Facilities and Logistics to plan to work from home on Wednesday.

The email included little explanation, saying department offices would be closed "for security reasons" and would reopen Thursday.

Employees of the department shared the email with NPR. We are not naming them because the employees feared retribution. Neither the White House nor the Education Department responded to a request for comment.

The email further unsettled department employees who have spent the past several weeks anticipating sweeping staff cuts by the Trump administration.

This Thursday, agency heads are expected to turn in their "reorganization" plans to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

A guidance memo from OMB and OPM sent in late February instructed agency heads to achieve "large-scale reductions in force (RIFs)" through attrition and "by eliminating positions that are not required."

Already, at least 75 department staff have been placed on paid administrative leave, according to a tally by AFGE Local 252, a union that represents Education Department employees. This count does not include managers and supervisors. Many of those workers on paid leave attended a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion workshop the department has offered for many years, including during the first Trump administration.

The union also says at least 75 probationary department staff, who were hired more recently and are legally easier to lay off, have also had their jobs terminated.

The Education Department did not respond to a request for an official tally of staff currently on leave or who have been laid off since the beginning of the Trump administration.