The U.S. Department of Education announced it would end its temporary halt on investigating discrimination complaints. However, this decision only applies to cases involving disability discrimination.
As a result, many complaints about race and gender discrimination will continue to be on hold. These include serious issues like unfair disciplinary actions and race-based harassment reported by students and their families.
Craig Trainor, the acting director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), informed staff through an internal memo that they should start processing these disability-related complaints immediately. The memo was shared with ProPublica.
The OCR has not been active in handling civil rights investigations over the past month, which is unusual, even for a presidential transition. Some employees described the situation as a “gag order,” feeling restricted from communicating about ongoing cases that started in earlier administrations.
Since President Trump took office, the OCR has opened only a few investigations, mainly focusing on his priorities, like examining gender-neutral bathrooms and the participation of transgender athletes in school sports. In comparison, last year, the office opened more than 250 new cases during the same period.
The workload has built up, with around 12,000 investigations pending when Trump began his term, some cases dating back over a decade. Civil rights advocates argue this backlog does not help students when they need assistance the most.
About half of the pending cases involve students with disabilities who feel they’ve been denied adequate support in schools. The OCR is also investigating roughly 3,200 cases of racial discrimination and about 1,000 related to sexual harassment and violence.
Ignoring discrimination claims related to disability could hurt the administration’s image, as Harold Jordan from the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out. “They don’t want to be seen as shutting down all the disability claims,” he stated.
In contrast, complaints related to racial discrimination, particularly those affecting students of color, do not align with Trump’s focus on alleged biases against white students.
This month, the OCR decided to investigate a complaint about a New York school district that allegedly excluded white students during an event focused on students of color. While the Biden administration did not act on this complaint, the new leaders at the Education Department quickly chose to proceed.
The memo also updated the case manual for investigating civil rights violations. The previous administration allowed for broader investigations when there was evidence of widespread issues. However, the current version does not mention these systemic inquiries. Moreover, it uses traditional gender language instead of inclusive terms, which some see as a nod to recent anti-transgender policies.
As Trump has criticized the Education Department and hinted at dismantling it, he has instructed schools to avoid using race in admissions and hiring decisions. Failure to comply could jeopardize their federal funding.
Despite the changes, Trainor reassured, “Discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal.”
Recently, the Trump administration canceled contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars primarily aimed at education research. These cuts were initiated by a group led by Elon Musk, which also terminated various training grants. Some of these changes impacted services previously available to students with disabilities.
