The U.S. Department of Education is bringing back hundreds of staffers to tackle a backlog of civil rights cases — including complaints of disability discrimination in schools — after keeping them on administrative leave for most of the year.
More than 200 employees of the agency’s Office for Civil Rights were among the nearly 1,400 staffers the Education Department tried to lay off in March, but the status of their jobs has been mired in litigation since then.
Now, the workers are being told to return to work as soon as next week.
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“It is important to refocus OCR’s work and utilize all OCR staff to prioritize OCR’s existing complaint caseload,” reads a notice sent to affected staffers. “Utilizing all OCR employees, including those currently on administrative leave, will bolster and refocus efforts on enforcement activities in a way that serves and benefits parents, students, and families.”
It’s unclear how many civil rights office employees will return under the directive since the Education Department did not provide details and some of the workers who were on leave have left the agency. However, Julie Hartman, the department’s press secretary for legal affairs, made clear that the agency is still seeking to fire the workers.
“We can confirm that the department will temporarily bring back OCR staff from administrative leave, who will resume work starting December 15,” she said. “The department will continue to appeal the persistent and unceasing litigation disputes concerning the reductions in force, but in the meantime, it will utilize all employees currently being compensated by American taxpayers.”
Traditionally, the Office for Civil Rights has served as a key resource for families of children with disabilities, fielding complaints about everything from physical accessibility of schools to exclusionary discipline, testing accommodations, harassment and much more. Disability discrimination complaints typically account for the majority of those handled by the office.
However, since the Education Department’s mass layoffs in March, disability advocates have said that the civil rights office has largely gone dark. A legal filing last month from The Arc of the United States and other education stakeholders claims that the office has “all but stopped functioning.”
“Since March, some of The Arc’s chapters, and families they work with, have entirely stopped filing complaints with OCR because of closures of local field offices, OCR’s delays in case processing, and overall lack of responsiveness,” the amended lawsuit states. “Some families who have filed complaints have reported to The Arc’s chapters that OCR has not responded to the complaints for months; others have reported that the respective OCR office never even set up an automatic email to confirm receipt of their filing.”
Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, an employee union representing many Education Department staffers, said that the Trump administration has “wasted more than $40 million in taxpayer funds” by keeping civil rights staffers on paid leave for over nine months.
“By blocking OCR staff from doing their jobs, department leadership allowed a massive backlog of civil rights complaints to grow, and now expects these same employees to clean up a crisis entirely of the department’s own making,” Gittleman said.
Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, or COPAA, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of students with disabilities and their families, welcomed the Education Department’s move to reinstate staffers in the civil rights office.
“We have stated all along that OCR cannot fulfill its obligations on a skeleton staff,” she said. “The fact they are returning them seems to be an acknowledgement that the firings were ill-advised.”
Marshall said it’s important that families and advocates continue filing complaints with the Office for Civil Rights when alleged discrimination occurs.
“This administration has statutory obligations to fulfill and their failure to do so should not deter filing,” she said.
