The U.S. Department of Education dismissed the vast majority of discrimination complaints it received — likely including many based on disability — all while spending millions in an effort to fire staff charged with investigating such cases.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that between March and September 2025, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights resolved more than 7,000 of the 9,000-plus discrimination complaints it received. In about 90% of cases, complaints were dismissed.
At the same time, the Department of Education spent as much as $38 million to pay hundreds of staffers from the agency’s Office for Civil Rights who were on paid leave as a result of reduction in force and reorganization efforts, GAO said.
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The report issued this month from the investigative arm of Congress examines the fallout from the Education Department’s decision last March to lay off 299 staffers in its Office for Civil Rights and close seven of 12 regional offices. The employees were put on paid leave and prohibited from working while the layoffs were challenged in court before the Education Department ultimately rescinded its reduction in force for the civil rights office staffers in January.
The findings are especially alarming for students with disabilities, advocates say.
The Office for Civil Rights has traditionally served as a key resource for families who can file complaints if their children with disabilities experience discrimination at school. The office can investigate claims related to accessibility of buildings, classrooms and playgrounds as well as exclusionary discipline, testing accommodations, harassment and much more.
GAO indicated that the Education Department has not revealed what types of discrimination the Office for Civil Rights has investigated since January 2025, but typically disability discrimination accounts for the largest percentage of complaints to the office each year.
“For the many disabled students whose rights have been violated, submitting complaints about their school to ED’s Office for Civil Rights has historically been an accessible, low-barrier way for students to enforce their own civil rights and hold institutions accountable without needing to have the resources to hire their own attorney,” said Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. “By paying OCR investigators not to work, firing the vast majority of OCR investigators, and simultaneously dismissing 90% of 9,000 claims without even reviewing them, the Trump administration has effectively shuttered an essential tool that students, educators and administrators alike rely upon.”
Education Department officials told GAO investigators that the civil rights office kept up with its workload and met its mission even while hundreds of staffers were on paid leave. But, Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate in Michigan who routinely helps families file complaints with the Education Department, described the Office for Civil Rights as “closed for business.”
“I have heard nothing since last March and neither have parents that I assisted with complaints,” said Lipsitt who indicated that she has several hundred open complaints with the civil rights office.
Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc of the United States, said the GAO report shows that the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is in “turmoil,” a situation that could have lasting implications for students with disabilities.
“Families have a right to turn to OCR when a child is denied accommodations, pushed out of class, harassed or disciplined unfairly because of disability,” Neas said. “When those complaints aren’t addressed, schools lose clear direction, families lose answers and students live with the consequences for years. Rights are only meaningful when enforcement exists.”
GAO recommended that the Education Department take additional steps to fully evaluate the costs and any savings from its reduction in force and reorganization efforts. In response, however, Kimberly Richey, who leads the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, said the agency disagreed noting that the affected employees returned to work in December and the agency rescinded all of the relevant reduction in force notifications, which she said “render this topic moot.”
The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment on the report’s findings or the current status of the civil rights office.
