U.S. students were still nearly half a grade level behind in both math and reading in the spring of 2024, compared with achievement levels before the pandemic, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard, a data-rich deep dive into student learning.

President Trump and Republicans have also voiced a desire to use their congressional majorities to overhaul higher education and create a federal tax credit program that would help families nationwide pay for private schooling.

Here's a look at what the Department of Education does and doesn't do—and how much of it is protected by acts of Congress.

For many young students, school feels like a lifeline. Now, they're feeling displaced, and yearning to return to see their friends and get back to learning. Some school are opening in phases.

Children with disabilities are far more likely to be subject to restraint or seclusion, suspended, expelled, referred to law enforcement or arrested at school, according to the U.S. Department of Education's most recent civil rights data collection.

Of the 14 experts NPR consulted for a recent NPR poll, the Biden administration got no A's, a bunch of B's, two B-/C+'s, two C's, two D's, two F's and one "incomplete" for work left unfinished. That averages out to be a C.

"Study after study is showing that there's no harm to being included, but there's great risks of harm to being segregated," says Jennifer Kurth, a professor of special education at the University of Kansas.

Only 1 in 4 adults now says a four-year degree is extremely or very important to get a good job, according to Pew Research Center. Nearly two-thirds of 14- to 18-year-olds say their ideal education would involve learning skills on the job—as in apprenticeships—according to a survey by the ECMC Group.