Department of Education

Twenty DOGE staff are reportedly within the Department of Education and "have gained access to multiple sensitive internal systems, including a financial aid dataset that contains the personal information for millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program."

Thomas Flagg, the CIO of the Dept. of Education, sends a memo to the heads of IT that orders them to give DOGE staff prompt access to all systems

The Washington Post reports that DOGE is feeding Department of Education data into an AI system hosted in Microsoft Azure

NBC News reports that Akash Bobba and Ethan Shaotran have admin access to email and had also accessed the backend admin for the Department of Education website.

In a court filing, the Department of Education agreed to block DOGE from access to financial aid systems.

A story on a proposal to use AI at the Department of Education lists several DOGE staffers identified there within the last few weeks.

After a conservative account complained to Musk on Twitter about gender options on the FAFSA form, it was changed the same day (a change was already on the roadmap, but multiple contractors were called in to rush it)

A federal judge denied an attempt to block DOGE from accessing Department of Education systems related to financial aid

In a ruling, a judge declared "DOGE affiliates have been granted access to systems of record that contain some of the plaintiffs' most sensitive data - Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, income and assets, citizenship status, and disability status - and their access to this trove of personal information is ongoing"

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) starts an audit of how DOGE handled data at several agencies

Ruling in American Federation of Teachers et al v. Bessent et al, Judge Boardman issues a preliminary injunction against to internal systems at the Departoment of Education by DOGE staff and the Acting Secretary where the justification for access was "the DOGE agenda" (i.e., all of them)

In a 2-1 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay against DOGE data access at the Treasury, OPM and Department of Education imposed in the case American Federation of Teachers v. Bessent (D. Maryland 2025)

Emailing from his CFPB account, Jeremy Lewin shares the documentation for the upcoming CFPB RIF with DOGE staff posted at several agencies. It's unclear if they are representing their agencies or DOGE in the communication

GOP proposals that would cut student loans and increase debt collection would require new technical capacity and policy that the Department of Education is unlikely to accomplish after many recent cuts and the elimination of technical staff by DOGE