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With a massive email sharing what is called “difficult news,” the U.S. Department of Education has erod one of its own important duties and eliminated more than half of its offices investigating civil rights complaints from students and their families.
Civil rights complaints at schools and universities have been investigated primarily through front posts in 12 regions across the country. Now there are five.
The Civil Rights Office locations in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco are closed, Propublica learned. Offices will remain in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Seattle and Washington DC
The OCR is one of the federal government’s largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, investigating thousands of allegations of discrimination each year. This includes discrimination based on disability, race and gender.
“This is devastating for American education and our students. This will ensure that students are given an equitable education, vulnerable to our most vulnerable risks and educationally successful for many who will last a lifetime,” said Katie Darm, deputy director of OCR, who resigned last Friday. “This impact can be felt beyond this transition period.”
The education department has not responded to Propublica’s request for comment.
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Overall, about 1,300 of the approximately 4,000 employees in the education sector were informed by mass emails on Tuesday that they would be taking administrative leave from March 21, accompanied by their last employment date on June 9th.
The Civil Rights Division had around 550 employees, the layoffs that were the biggest impact. Other departures will make the education sector about half the size.
At least 243 union employees of OCR have been fired. The Federal Student Aid Division, which manages grants and loans to university students, has laid off 326 union-member employees, with most of the departments being fired.
On average, each OCR lawyer investigating complaints is assigned approximately 60 cases at a time. The complaints that have been backlogged for years have been piled up after President Donald Trump took office in January and implemented a month-long freeze on the agency’s civil rights activities.
“What you left is a shell that cannot function,” said Katherine Ramon, who oversaw OCR under former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Civil rights investigators who now maintain it said it was “virtually impossible” to resolve discrimination complaints.
“Part of the OCR’s job is physically going to a place. As part of the investigation, we go to school, look at the play area and see if it’s accessible,” said a senior OCR lawyer. “We look at the softball and the baseball field. We measure the bathroom and make sure it’s accessible. We interview a group of students. We need in-person work. That’s part of the foundation of having a local office. Currently, California doesn’t have a local office.”
The OCR was investigating around 12,000 complaints when Trump took office. The largest share of pending complaints (approximately 6,000) was related to students with disabilities who felt abused or unfairly rejected in schools, according to a Propublica analysis of departmental data.
The focus has changed since Trump took office. The office has opened so many “directed investigations” based on Trump’s priorities. These are related to ending anti-Semitism suppression, the participation of trans athletes in women’s sports, and combating allegations of discrimination against white students.
Traditionally, students and families have turned their attention to OCR after they feel that concerns have not been addressed by the district. This process is free. This means that families whose lawyers cannot afford to pursue a lawsuit may still be able to seek help.
Once the OCR finds evidence of discrimination, it can require that students be provided to force districts and universities to change policies, or to provide services to students, such as access to disability services and improving safety at schools. Sometimes the office monitors the institutions to make sure they follow.
“The OCR simply stops investigating violations. That won’t happen. Another attorney from the Department of Education asked him not to name him as he still works there. “It was very time-consuming and labor intensive.”
The department said in a press release that all departments in the department were affected. The National Center for Education Statistics, which collects data on national school health, has been almost wiped out.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the layoffs “an important step in restoring the greatness of the American education system.” In addition to 1,300 letting go on Tuesday, the department said 600 employees have already accepted voluntary resignation or have retired in the past seven weeks.
Trump and his conservative allies have long wanted to shut down the sector, so Trump calls it a “big scam.” However, the president has not tried to do so before, and officially closing the department will require Congressional approval.
Offices examining disparities in veteran care are “liquidated”
Instead, Trump has weakened the agency significantly. On the same day, Congress confirmed McMahon as education secretary and she sent an email to department staff explaining her “final mission.” Participating in the “an opportunity to carry out the ultimate, unforgettable public service” to eliminate what she called “inflated and responsible” in the department.
Educational employees received an email Tuesday afternoon saying that all agency offices across the country would be closed at 6pm for “security reasons” and remain closed on Wednesday. This has led many workers to speculate that layoffs were coming.
Later, after work day was over, fired employees began receiving emails admitting “a difficult workforce restructuring.”
The email was also published across the department. “This email will notice that your organizational unit has been deprecated along with all positions within the unit (including all positions, including yours.”
