As the future of the Department of Education remains in flux, the closing of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the DOE is warned to have wider ramifications on the federal court system and the individuals who have or will file claims.
President Donald Trump ran a campaign aiming to upend the traditional norms of the federal government. That included eliminating the DOE to give states more control of education. But questions remain on how such a move would impact federal funding mechanisms for aid programs and, without the OCR, potentially put more students—such as Jewish students on some college campuses—at risk.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Education via email for comment.
Why It Matters
About 45 years after the DOE was formed during President Jimmy Carter‘s administration, Trump signed an executive director to abolish it. The White House stated that the DOE’s main functions “can, and should, be returned to the States.”
They admonished the cost of federal funding on taxpayers, saying the money ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic. A lack of proficiency among junior high students in math and reading is cause for “providing the children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them,” the White House said on March 20.
What To Know
One of many hypothetical questions resulting from a nonexistent DOE is what students and institutions would do without the OCR accepting and investigating complaints.
Through the DOE, the OCR responds to questions and complaints about laws applied to civil rights discrimination in schools. This includes inquiries on subjects such as disability discrimination, sex discrimination, race and national origin discrimination, and age discrimination.
Currently, the aggrieved can contact one of the 12 regional OCR offices to obtain a form. They can also file a complaint online or email a letter to the office. Basic details within a complaint include the name of the school, college or institution being complained about, who was being discriminated against, and when the discrimination occurred.
Alexa Van Brunt, the director of the Illinois office at the MacArthur Justice Center who also directs and teaches the Civil Rights Litigation Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, told Newsweek that the OCR has effectively been “eradicated.”
“We know that the number of OCR complaints has dropped drastically already,” Van Brent said. “It used to be that most complaints that OCR investigates came from parents and families who have been negatively impacted in school, discriminated against, or not given necessary access to classrooms and other resources.
“Now it looks like the main complaints that are being handled are ones that are being brought by Trump to promote his initiatives relating to banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports and issues related to gender-neutral bathrooms,” she said.
Executive Order 14201, signed by Trump in February, bans transgender women from competing in women’s sports. Schools that don’t comply face loss of federal funding.
The annual fiscal year 2024 report released in tandem by DOE and OCR shows the agency’s “busiest and most productive fiscal year in history,” receiving the most complaints (22,687) in a single year—an 18 percent increase over the previous record-high of 19,201 complaints in FY 2023.
Peter Larsen, assistant professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law and an expert in civil rights law and discrimination law, told Newsweek that “without OCR, there’s no clear federal mechanism to enforce civil rights protections in education.”
“This would lead, I think, to essentially three other paths for people who would be bringing claims through OCR,” Larsen said. “One would be state-level enforcement, so states can try to fill the gap by passing their own laws or enforcing their own civil rights claims.
“There’s also private legal action, so [one] certainly could just file a private suit under federal or state civil rights law. You could use the Civil Rights Act; you could use Title VI, Title IX, go that route. Of course, it is more complex. It’s time consuming. It’s costly. You have to shop around for an attorney. You have to have an attorney who takes on that case. It’s a much lengthier process.”
Van Brunt said there are many “barriers to entry” to filing complaints in an arena like federal court, including the cost (which can start around $400 just to file, not counting attorney fees) and stringent pleading requirements.
OCR complaints are free to file and don’t require strict pleading requirements.
Van Brunt said it’s akin to a one-stop shop for complaints to bring their case forward and substantiate it with discovery. That could mean taking a complaint around systemic issues and investigating it thoroughly. Or, if a school district is too exclusionary with its discipline policies, OCR can look at the entire discipline system.
“In federal court, you can’t get that kind of review or analysis unless you bring a class-action [lawsuit] that has impossibly high standards of proof,” she said. “So, it’s definitely not more efficient to put this all through the judicial system.
“And of course, the Trump administration knows that what’s gonna happen, [that] there’s just not going to be any indication of support rights.”
Another potential workaround is to look through other federal entities like the Department of Justice. Non-governmental organizations like the Antidefamation League or the American Civil Liberties Union may also seek private legal action.
Newsweek reached out to the ACLU and ADL for comment.
The latter referred Newsweek to a post on X (formerly Twitter) that reads in part: “This move raises profound concerns about the federal government’s ability to protect students from antisemitism and other forms of discrimination and ensure equal access to quality education for all students.”
Earlier this month, the OCR sent letters to 60 higher education institutions warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI “to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.”
All addressed universities are currently under investigation for Title VI violations relating to “antisemitic harassment and discrimination.”
Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from universities over supposed “illegal protests” following pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses amid the war in Gaza.
“We’re see a lot happening with Israel-Palestine. We’re seeing a lot with Black Lives Matter. We’re seeing a lot with larger DEI frameworks and the sort of dubious legality of the president’s executive order on that,” Larsen said.
“[We’re also seeing] more sort of threatening enforcement letters that have been sent out by the DOJ seeing pretty consistent rises in hate crimes, particularly around antisemitism, but you know also anti-Black, anti-Asian, ableist issues,” he said. “There are all sorts of complaints that OCR would be handling and now would be the worst time to get rid of that, especially given that we’ve seen complaints are at an all-time high.”
Michigan-based defamation attorney Keith Altman, who has helped students file legal claims for decades, told Newsweek that the OCR’s demise would not be as provocative as others may think.
“We deal with OCR all the time. And, to put it mildly, as a general proposition, I know they try hard, but I’m not really impressed. To me, OCR provides limited resolution for parents,” Altman said.
“They may come down and say the school did something wrong, but that often doesn’t really benefit the parents or help or the students in the ways that they’re looking for. They really go after the policies of the school, and a lot of times that just doesn’t really help.”
He also believes that if the DOE dismantling comes to fruition, another agency within the federal government may take over some of these issues and complaints in the future.
If the government passed on responsibility, Altman said he expects states to take action because some mechanism must exist—even if schools hate dealing with OCR complaints, as he claims through his own experience.
“Schools absolutely, positively despise OCR complaints,” he said. “I mean, it really rubs them the wrong way…There has to be some kind of rational way for students to be able to air their concerns and voice their complaints. Parents and students will find another way, and it’s probably going to be federal court.”
What People Are Saying
Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon: “The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better.”
Attorney Nicole Brenechi told Newsweek: “Although OCR provides a direct route to redress regarding discrimination claims in educational institutions, OCR is not, and has never been, the exclusive remedy available to aggrieved parties. The same civil rights that can form the basis of any individual’s complaint to OCR can be enforced in a federal court.”
What Happens Next
During the signing of his executive order last week, Trump said federal Pell grants, Title I funding and funding for children with disabilities would be “preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments.”
While the entire DOE won’t close as it requires congressional approval, McMahon has been directed to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
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