Disability Bias Complaints Peak as the Office That Investigates Them Is Gutted

Families filed nearly 23,000 federal civil rights complaints against schools in fiscal 2024, the highest number ever.

That includes about 8,400 cases involving allegations of discrimination against students with disabilities, who have struggled to recover academically from the pandemic.

Under federal law, public schools must provide children with disabilities a “free appropriate public education,” to give them the same opportunity to learn as other kids.

But pleas for federal intervention are in limbo as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to dismantle the Education Department.

The agency helps oversee schools and colleges and has the authority to protect students from discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or disability. Its Office for Civil Rights investigates accusations against schools and negotiates corrective actions.

On March 11, the Education Department announced it was reducing its workforce by nearly half. Authorities closed seven of the 12 regional civil rights offices, leaving behind too few staffers to investigate thousands of cases, according to attorneys and advocates for disabled people.

“We had problems already, and now we are going to have more problems,” said Hannah Russell, a former special education teacher who works with parents in North Carolina trying to obtain educational services for their children with disabilities. The civil rights office is “the only thing that upholds accountability.”

In March, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the Education Department, which he said had failed children and become a bloated bureaucracy.

He instructed officials to “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.”

A group of states and the District of Columbia has sued to halt the cuts, but the Supreme Court ruled in July that the Trump administration could forge ahead while the case moves through the courts. But parents like Emma Miller of North Carolina fear there will be no authority left to intervene on their behalf.

Miller filed a complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights against the public school system in Wake County, alleging her two kids were denied their civil rights. She said her son is in 10th grade but cannot read or write. His twin sister was bullied by classmates and became suicidal, Miller said.

Wake County school officials declined an interview to answer questions about Miller’s complaints, citing privacy laws. In a written statement, spokesperson Matthew Dees said the district worked to reach an agreement with Miller on multiple issues and remedied complaints that were substantiated.

Federal officials refused to investigate, according to a letter she received in March. Spokespeople for the Education Department and the White House declined to comment.

“No one is taking responsibility,” Miller said. “It has been a nightmare.”