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The U.S. Department of Education told employees Thursday that it would lift the one-month freeze by investigating discrimination complaints at schools and universities across the country, but it would only allow disability investigations to proceed.
This means that thousands of unpaid complaints filed with the Civil Rights Office related to race and gender discrimination (mostly filed by students and families) will continue to become neglect. This includes, for example, cases of claiming unfair discipline or racial-based harassment.
“We have lifted the suspension on handling complaints claiming discrimination based on disability. Please handle complaints claiming discrimination based on disability,” said Craig Trainer, the office’s representative director, who said Propublica. I wrote it in an internal memo I got. It is sent to employees in the office’s enforcement department, most of whom are attorneys.
A department spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Propublica reported last week that the Department of Education had suspended its ongoing civil rights investigation. This is an extraordinary movement even during the presidential transition. Department employees are told not to communicate with students, families and schools involved in incidents launched in previous administrations, describing the dict order as “gag order” and calling it “essentially a muzzle.” He said there was.
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The office has only opened a handful of new cases since President Donald Trump took office. The study covers gender-neutral bathrooms and institutions in school districts that have enabled transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. Other prioritized investigations include allegations of discrimination against white students or anti-Semitism.
As of last week, OCR had launched a total of about 20 new investigations. For example, over 250 new cases were opened in the same period last year.
For years, OCR had a backlog of lawsuits. When Trump took office, there were about 12,000 pending investigations. Some people have been open for over a decade, but civil rights advocates said they were unable to bring relief when students needed them.
Approximately half of the pending surveys are related to students with disabilities who feel they have been abused or unfairly rejected at schools, according to departmental data analysis.
Investigators were pursuing roughly 3,200 active complaints about racism, including unfair discipline and racial harassment. The additional approximately 1,000 complaints were inherent to sexual harassment or sexual violence, the analysis found. The rest concerns various discriminatory claims.
Ignoring or attacking the rights of people with disabilities is “political unpopular,” said Harold Jordan of the American Civil Liberties Union, which addresses the issue of education equity nationwide. “They don’t want to be seen as closing down all of their disability claims,” he said.
However, complaints typically investigated by OCR are consistent with Trump’s priorities regarding racial bias that have previously been linked to discrimination against students of color. Not there.
“When people essentially reverse a complaint of discrimination, they pick up a case of race,” Jordan said.
In fact, OCR added a complaint filed this month by a conservative nonprofit that was filed in August, claiming that the Ithaca City School District in New York eliminated white students by holding an event called Coluste of Color. I have decided to investigate. Summit. The Biden administration was not based on complaints, but within days the new education leadership decided that the agency would proceed with the investigation.
Thursday’s memo also includes a “revised” case manual, detailing how to investigate and resolve complaints alleging violations of the Civil Rights Act. During previous administrations, investigators had the authority to open “systematic” inquiries when there was evidence of widespread civil rights issues or multiple complaints of the same type of discrimination in school districts and universities. It appears that his ability to launch a wider investigation has been stripped under Trump. The new manual does not mention a full-body investigation.
This manual no longer includes gender-neutral references. Those claiming violations of “their” rights have been replaced by “he or her” in the updated version of Trump. That coincides with his recent anti-transgender policy and his view that there are only two genders.
The OCR shift is because Trump calls the education sector a “fraud” and is expected to issue an executive order where it will be dismantled. Last week, trainers told schools and universities there would be two weeks to eliminate race as a factor in the risk of losing admission, financial aid, employment, training, or federal funds.
“We’ve been inherently argued”: Department of Education suspends thousands of civil rights investigations under Trump
“Under the banner, there is discrimination based on race, color or country’s origins and remains illegal,” writes Trainer.
Over the past two weeks, the Trump administration has ended a total of hundreds of millions of dollars total contracts focusing primarily on educational research and data on learning and the country’s schools. The cuts came at the request of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting crew, known as government efficiency.
However, the recent contract termination, which was advertised as having removed the “waste” division and ended the “diversity” program, also ended services for some students with disabilities abruptly.
