Education Department layoffs gut its civil rights office, leaving
discrimination cases in limbo
[March 13, 2025]
By COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department’s civil rights branch is
losing nearly half its staff in the Trump administration’s layoffs,
effectively gutting an office that already faced a backlog of thousands
of complaints from students and families across the nation.
Among a total of more than 1,300 layoffs announced Tuesday were roughly
240 in the department’s Office for Civil Rights, according to a list
obtained and verified by The Associated Press. Seven of the civil rights
agency's 12 regional offices were entirely laid off, including busy hubs
in New York, Chicago and Dallas. Despite assurances that the
department's work will continue unaffected, huge numbers of cases appear
to be in limbo.
The Trump administration has not said how it will proceed with thousands
of cases being handled by staff it's eliminating. The cases involve
families trying to get school services for students with disabilities,
allegations of bias related to race and religion, and complaints over
sexual violence at schools and college campuses.
Some staffers who remain said there's no way to pick up all of their
fired colleagues’ cases. Many were already struggling to keep pace with
their own caseloads. With fewer than 300 workers, families likely will
be waiting on resolution for years, they said.
“I fear they won’t get their calls answered, their complaints won’t
move,” said Michael Pillera, a senior civil rights attorney for the
Office for Civil Rights. “I truly don’t understand how a handful of
offices could handle the entire country.”
Department officials insisted the cuts will not affect civil rights
investigations. The reductions were “strategic decisions," spokesperson
Madison Biedermann.
“OCR will be able to deliver the work,” Biedermann said. “It will have
to look different, and we know that.”
The layoffs are part of a dramatic downsizing directed by President
Donald Trump as he moves to reduce the footprint of the federal
government. Along with the Office of Civil Rights, the top divisions to
lose hundreds of staffers in the layoffs included Federal Student Aid,
which manages the federal student loan portfolio, and the Institute of
Education Sciences, which oversees assessments of whether the education
system is working and research into best teaching practices.
Trump has pushed for a full shutdown of the Education Department,
calling it a “con job” and saying its power should be turned over to
states. On Wednesday he told reporters many agency employees “don’t work
at all.” Responding to the layoffs, he said his administration is
“keeping the best ones.”
After the cuts, the Office for Civil Rights will only have workers in
Washington and five regional offices, which traditionally take the lead
on investigating complaints and mediating resolutions with schools and
colleges. Buildings are being closed and staff laid off in Dallas,
Chicago, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Many lawyers at the New York City office were juggling 80 or more cases,
said one staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for
reprisals. The branch often mediated cases with New York City schools,
the nation’s largest district, and its lawyers were handling a
high-profile antisemitism investigation at Columbia University — a
priority for Trump.
The staffer described several pending cases involving students with
disabilities who are wrongly being kept out of school because of
behavioral issues. With limited oversight from the office, they said,
school districts will be less likely to comply with legal requirements.
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The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Eduction, which were
ordered closed for the day for what officials described as security
reasons amid large-scale layoffs, are seen Wednesday, March 12,
2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Pillera, who had said before the cuts that he was leaving the
department, said it's unclear how complaints will be investigated in
areas that no longer have offices.
“We have to physically go to schools,” Pillera said. “We have to
look at the playground to see if it’s accessible for kids with
disabilities. We have to measure doorways and bathrooms to see if
everything is accessible for kids with disabilities.”
Even before the layoffs, the civil rights office had been losing
staff even as complaints rose to record levels. The workforce had
fallen below 600 staffers before Trump took office, and they faced
nearly 23,000 complaints filed last year, more than ever.
Trump officials ordered a freeze on most cases when they arrived at
the department, adding to the backlog. When Education Secretary
Linda McMahon lifted the freeze last week, there were more than
20,000 pending cases.
Historically, most of the office’s work deals with disability rights
cases, but it has fielded growing numbers of complaints alleging
discrimination based on sex or race. It has also played a prominent
role in investigating complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia
amid the Israel-Hamas war and a wave of campus demonstrations that
spread across the country last year.
Craig Trainor, Trump’s appointee over the office, directed staff to
focus on antisemitism cases as a top priority last week. In a memo,
he accused former President Joe Biden of failing to hold colleges
accountable and promised tougher action against violators.
At her confirmation hearing, McMahon said the goal is not to defund
key programs but to make them operate more efficiently. She vowed to
uphold the agency’s civil rights work but said it might fit better
being moved to the Justice Department.
The civil rights office was not the only division to lose attorneys
key to the Education Department's portfolio. Tuesday’s layoffs have
nearly eliminated all staff working in the department’s Office of
the General Counsel, say two people familiar with the situation, who
didn’t want to speak publicly for fear of reprisals.
Attorneys in the division advised the department on the legality of
its actions, helped enforce how states and schools spent federal
money meant for disadvantaged K-12 students, and watched for
conflicts of interest among internal staff and appointees, among
other things.
Of the approximately 100 staff members working before Trump took
office, only around two dozen remain. The majority of those still
employed advise the department on higher education, including
financial aid programs.
An email the Education Department sent to all staff after the
layoffs said there will need to be significant changes to how they
work.
“What we choose to prioritize, and in turn, not prioritize, will be
critical in this transition,” the message said.
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AP Education Writer Bianca Vázquez Toness contributed reporting.
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