The Legal Defense Fund recently called upon the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to properly enforce civil rights protections.
Released as a press release, the Senior Policy Counsel, Hamida Labi, appealed to the OCR to address the findings of a new Government Accountability Office report. In the report, the federal agency revealed that the OCR cut its department in half, placing half of the 575 employees on paid administrative leave. Approximately seven of 12 OCR offices were also closed as part of efforts to reduce the state agency’s size. The total plan reportedly cost $28.5 million to $38 million.
In this time period, from March 2025 to September 2025, more than 9,000 complaints were submitted to the OCR about alleged discrimination. Only about 7,000 of these complaints were reported as addressed and resolved. According to the Government Accountability Office report, nearly 90% were resolved by a dismissal of the complaint.
In her statement, Labi called on the OCR to adequately fund the agency to ensure civil rights are upheld.
“This congressional watchdog report confirms what we already knew to be true: over the past year, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has abandoned its duty to enforce our nation’s civil rights laws and ensure Black students and other students of color have access to a high-quality public education free from discrimination,” said Labi. “OCR must fully invest in lawful civil rights enforcement and operate with transparency. These responsibilities include ensuring Black students have equal educational opportunities, including the elimination of racial disparities in school discipline to address harassment and inequities in access to educational resources.”
The March layoffs were part of a series of mass departmental layoffs led by the Trump administration.
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the administration after a federal district judge issued an injunction ordering the Department of Education to reverse the layoffs.
As part of an order issued in the McMahon v. New York case, the high court gave into the administration’s request to reverse this injunction, allowing for the layoff of approximately 1,400 DOE employees. Only Justices Ketanji Brown, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.
Department of Education: Full Costs and Savings Estimate Needed for Reduction-in-Force and Restructuring of the Office for Civil Rights https://t.co/PrgB9vZFQW
— U.S. GAO (@USGAO) February 2, 2026
U.S. District Court Judge Myong Joun, however, did not drop a lower-court order previously issued in June that demanded that the DOE bring back the 264 OCR employees who were laid off. Approximately 85 employees were therefore brought back, with another 60 planned to also be brought back every two weeks from November and so on.
The department, however, has indicated that it would let go of staff as soon as it is able, according to Education Week.
As of September, a three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order confirming that the DOE can proceed with layoffs of 264 OCR employees.
