McMahon also pointed out that states have the primary role in vaccinations.
Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon did not rule out whether the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could have a role in school vaccines.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 20 to start dismantling the Education Department and redirect the agency’s handling of funds to children with disabilities to HHS. However, the order did not mention vaccines.
During an interview with CNN on Sunday, McMahon was asked whether HHS and Kennedy would be involved in vaccines at schools.
“That’s a little bit outside of looking at making sure that we have funding for children with disabilities,” McMahon said in response.
“So that’s a no?” CNN anchor Dana Bash then asked her.
“That’s not necessarily a no,” McMahon said. “I’m just saying that, right now, the Department of Education, through the funding for children with disabilities, is not controlling vaccinations and that sort of thing in states.”
Also in the interview, McMahon pointed out that states primarily handle vaccinations for schoolchildren, not the federal government.
Each state sets its own rules regarding which vaccines are required and the exemptions that children can receive before attending class, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are no federal laws mandating that children have to be vaccinated before attending school.
However, HHS has a National Vaccine Program that it says provides leadership and coordination on vaccines and immunization schedules. Meanwhile, HHS through the Food and Drug Administration regulates vaccine use in the United States and vaccine approvals.
HHS also provides information on vaccines for children, ensures the supply of shots, and provides a forum to submit vaccine injury reports.
Previous HHS secretaries issued directives to expand eligibility for children to get COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic years, according to the agency.
In the interview, McMahon voiced her support for Kennedy in terms of protecting children with disabilities, noting that the HHS secretary suffers from a health condition.
“Secretary Kennedy, with whom I’ve had conversations about that, has an absolute passion about looking at students with handicaps and disabilities because he himself talks about how difficult it has been for him with the neurological aspect that he dealt with all through his life,” McMahon said.
Kennedy has a neurological condition called spasmodic dysphonia, which causes the muscles of his larynx to spasm involuntarily, resulting in a strained-sounding voice when speaking.
Because it “is painful for him when he speaks,” Kennedy can understand “children who are having to deal with that kind of handicap and need help,” she said. “I think that would be a passion of his own heart.”
On March 21, Trump said at the White House that he would redirect the Education Department’s handling of student loans to the Small Business Administration and send programs for children with disabilities as well as nutrition programs to HHS.
“And also, Bobby Kennedy, with the Health and Human Services Department, will be handling special needs and all the nutrition programs and everything else,” Trump said. “I think that will work out very well. Those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education.”
Although the Education Department cannot be dissolved without congressional action, Trump’s executive order directs McMahon and agency officials to take steps to facilitate its closure “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”
Trump’s order states that the agency needs to be shut down because it has “plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families” since it was created in the 1970s.
The text released by the White House said that states and local communities should instead be the ones to “best ensure student success” across the United States.
The Epoch Times contacted HHS for comment on Monday.