Ranking Member Sanders Releases Report on Civil Rights Investigations
This week, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT) released a report, Justice Denied: How Trump's Office for Civil Rights Reached a 12-Year Low in Protecting Students from Discrimination, which examines the impact of a reduction in force at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) 's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The study analyzed resolution agreements over the last year, a period during which 299 of 575 OCR staff were fired and 7 of 12 regional civil rights offices were shuttered as part of a Department-wide reduction in force. The OCR staff remained off the job for approximately 8 months before being required, through litigation, to be rehired.
During that period, the report found a dramatic drop in the number of resolution agreements- 78 percent fewer than the prior year. Mid‑investigation firings at OCR left cases unassigned, schools without contacts, families without answers for months, and even students under existing resolution agreements without promised protections. The report found that OCR "Reached nearly 79% fewer disability resolution agreements for students with disabilities, which make up the largest share of cases." Of the 2,700 pending cases that involve restraint and seclusion, discriminatory school discipline, sexual or racial harassment, and sexual violence, zero resolutions were reached.
The report concludes, "Any child in America should be able to go to school safely and be treated with dignity regardless of their race, disability, or sex," and that ED had broken that promise. McMahon has stated publicly that with the reinstatement of OCR staff, progress on backlogs is currently underway.