Amid the chaos at the shrinking and endangered Department of Education, multiple former staffers tell The Hill the recent layoffs were disorganized and heartbreaking, but they are most concerned the agency will no longer be able to fulfill its obligations to students and schools.   The Departmen t of Education has gone from more than 4,000 employees to a little more than 2,000 in the first two months of President Trump’s term, affecting everyone from probationary employees to veterans who have been there for 20 years. And those cuts came before Trump's executive order seeking to do away with the department entirely. From the Office for Civil Rights to Federal Student Aid, no program has been spared.  “I'm disappointed in the fact that my employment ended, of course, but I'm more disappointed in the fact that I'm seeing things happening to the services that we provide to students that I'm very concerned about,” said Brittany Coleman, who served at the department as a civil rights attorney for five years.  “I just want to point out that this is illogical, inefficient and chaotic. ... Services have already been disrupted, so now they're going to be disrupted even further. I'm more frustrated and concerned for the needs of students” added Coleman, the chief steward at the Education Department’s employees’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 252.   Coleman, with all the AFGE officers, was swept up in the massive reduction in force that came earlier this month at the department. Less than a week later, Trump turned up the pressure to end the department by signing an executive order telling Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle the federal agency as far as she legally can.   The next day, Trump said student loans would move to the Small Business Administration and programs for students with disabilities will go the Health and Human Services Department “immediately.”  From the start of Trump's second term, Coleman said work within the Office for Civil Rights was different from past administration, with staffers ordered to stop working on cases completely for a period of time.   Then the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came in, with payrolls cuts and nebulous demands such as one for employees to send emails with five bullet points of what they've accomplished in the past week. While Coleman had the option to take some of the buyouts the department offered before she was fired, she said she had no intention of "running away from servicing the American public or running from students.”   The fired employees who spoke to The Hill emphasized it will be impossible for some legally mandated department obligations to be completed with these reductions, and those left behind are finding that out.   Inside Higher Ed reported on Tuesday the Education Department is reinstating employment for some who were swept up in the mass layoff.  “Effective immediately, the notice you received … regarding Reduction in Force is rescinded,” an email to a fired employee read. “We are in the process of reactivating your accounts. Please report to your regular duty station.”  At least 50 employees who worked at the Office of Federal Student Aid received the email to be reinstated, according to Inside Higher Ed.   Staffers have in particular warned about friendly fire from Trump's efforts to purge diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs from the federal government. At the Department of Education, reports emerged of staffers being fired for attending a DEI workshop that was hosted during Trump’s first term, and of some being let go even with no apparent connection to DEI in their roles at all.   One fired employee who requested anonymity told The Hill she was swept up in those placed on administrative leave over the DEI order despite her job being unrelated to it. She immediately lost access to her email and internal department systems, leaving her unable to connect with the schools or other clients she worked with to either wrap up the remaining duties she had or transition the work for someone else.   This became a bigger issue when her job was officially eliminated during the reduction in force, but she was at first unaware because she could not access email.  “I didn't get that notice, because it would go to my [department] email and I can't access it,” she said, adding she had to check in with colleagues at the department to see what was going on. "It's not even just me in that regard. There are multiple people who can't access various systems internally. There's no forwarding of emails. So, there's no sending of emails to their own private email or even responding to an email from the school. We're not able to do that,” she said.   The battle over their jobs could just be beginning as DOGE-fueled purges are increasingly challenged in court. Sheria Smith, president of AFGE Local 252, said in an email to members the union is working to get them all reinstated.    The National Education Association, the country’s largest union and the NAACP and other advocacy groups have already filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's executive order to dismantle the department and are asking for a judge to declare the actions taken against it illegal. “It was an honor to have a public service position. In fact, I was sharing with a friend that I even felt giddy after I was fingerprinted and got my name badge, and I wore it on a lanyard around my neck, walking into the building. When I came into the office, showing the security folks my name badge, and I smiled to everyone when I entered and when I left the building each night,” said one employee who had only been at the department for around two months.   "It was a thrill to know that what I was doing had a direct impact on the research community and the data community,” the employee added.  ...read more read less