Advocates warned that recent staffing cuts and policy shifts threaten special‑education enforcement and services while higher‑education access programs face elimination amid budget retrenchment. Parents and disability advocates say proposed moves to shift authority for IDEA‑related functions outside the Education Department would remove technical expertise from program oversight. Separately, Purdue University announced the termination of a broad college‑prep program serving low‑income students, citing federal cuts and policy pressure—an example of downstream program reductions on campuses that rely on federal and state support to sustain outreach and pipeline work. Those changes put at risk the continuity of pre‑college support and compliance assistance that feed into college enrollment, retention and completion metrics, prompting institutions to reassess recruitment pipelines and partner supports.