Mass firings at the U.S. Department of Education will severely compromise families’ ability to ensure that the rights of their children with disabilities are upheld, advocates warn.
At least 243 staffers, including many investigators, at the department’s Office for Civil Rights are being terminated as part of an agency-wide “reduction in force” announced last week. In addition, the Education Department is shuttering seven of 12 regional branches of the civil rights office.
The office has long served as a key resource for families who can file complaints if their children with disabilities face discrimination in schools. Investigators with the civil rights office address issues related to everything from accessibility of buildings, classrooms and playgrounds to exclusionary discipline, testing accommodations, harassment and much more.
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“Terminating hundreds of staff from OCR and closing regional offices across the country will have devastating impacts on disability discrimination complaint investigations,” said Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. “Families of children with disabilities are now left with little to no recourse should their or their student’s rights be infringed upon.”
The level of firings has left the Office for Civil Rights “effectively a shell of itself,” according to Catherine Lhamon who led the office under the Biden and Obama administrations.
“When I left on Jan. 20, staff were handling about 50 cases per person and that was untenable and the caseload has increased since that time,” Lhamon said, predicting that caseloads could now rise to 120 per person. “There’s no civil rights investigator anywhere who could effectively investigate and resolve that high a number of cases.”
Now, advocates are suing the Education Department, accusing the agency of decimating and sabotaging the ability of the civil rights office to investigate and process claims.
“Families who have filed complaints with the reasonable expectation that OCR will follow its legal mandates and longstanding practice of investigating and processing their cases have been left without any information about the status of their complaints or the prospect of obtaining relief,” states the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington. “This includes families of students who urgently need accommodations or are seeking a resolution that would allow them to return to the classroom.”
As a result of recent changes, the Office for Civil Rights has postponed scheduled meetings and mediations without explanation and failed to provide updates to complainants, all while prioritizing politically motivated investigations including ones targeting programs supporting students of color and those who identify as LGBTQ+, the suit indicates.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two parents with pending claims before the civil rights office and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, or COPAA, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of students with disabilities and their families, and its members.
“Failing to investigate civil rights complaints is a betrayal of students and families across the country, all of whom deserve justice,” said Shakti Belway, executive director of the National Center for Youth Law, which filed the suit on behalf of the parents and COPAA. “To abandon thousands of claims, while our schools are seeing increased bullying, harassment, and discrimination, not only goes against the very mission of the Department of Education, it sends a chilling message that schools don’t need to foster an environment in which every student is safe and welcome. This only undermines student safety, while emboldening those who may not have students’ best interests at heart.”
Through the lawsuit, the advocates want to compel the Education Department to restore the civil rights office’s ability to process complaints and they are asking the court to monitor the office’s work.
Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit, but previously indicated that “we are confident that the dedicated staff of OCR will deliver on its statutory responsibilities.”
A separate lawsuit filed by a coalition of 21 state attorneys general is also challenging the Education Department firings.
The cuts at the Office for Civil Rights were some of the nearly 1,400 layoffs announced last week by the Education Department. Coupled with recent resignations and retirements, the agency said it expects to lose almost half its staff. In addition to the Office for Civil Rights, employees from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Institute of Education Sciences and other divisions were also fired.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that the terminations are a “first step” toward shuttering the agency altogether, which President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to do. McMahon has suggested moving oversight of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to the Department of Health and Human Services and sending the Office for Civil Rights to the Justice Department.
In an interview after the cuts were announced, McMahon said that the Education Department is retaining staff to ensure that programs like IDEA don’t “fall through the cracks,” but she was unable to say what IDEA stands for.
Disability advocates, however, are increasingly worried.
“The administration’s actions against the Department of Education are an attack on students with disabilities and their families, who rely on federal oversight to ensure they receive the support and services they need,” said Marlene Sallo, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network. “Without the Department of Education’s enforcement of IDEA, students could face discrimination, inadequate accommodations and services, and a rollback of the hard-fought rights that have been in place for decades.”
