The Education Department’s civil rights office has been one of the hardest hit by layoffs, with the Trump administration closing seven of its twelve regional offices and laying off nearly half of its employees.
One current employee described the changes as a “soft closing” of the office. “This will completely halt the vast majority of cases that we can take in, evaluate, and investigate,” said the employee, who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) seeks to protect students by holding federally funded schools and colleges accountable for combating antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and discrimination against students with disabilities.
On Tuesday, the Department of Education informed approximately 1,300 employees that they would be laid off. According to a nonpartisan Ed Reform Now analysis, the civil rights office lost the most employees of any of the programs affected, 243 out of 557.
Multiple sources at the department told CNN that the regional offices in New York, Cleveland, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Chicago had been closed, with their entire staff laid off.
Employees expect the civil rights cases currently handled by these offices to be redistributed to the regional offices that remain open in Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Kansas City, and Washington, DC.
Another current OCR employee told CNN that they are concerned about the office’s ability to manage its caseload given the massive staff reduction.
“There was already a case backlog, and now these cases will simply fall by the wayside,” the employee told CNN. “This work cannot be completed without staff. The messaging that this will increase efficiency and allow OCR to continue to fulfill its statutorily mandated mission is a lie; students will suffer harm as a result, which will have long-term consequences for many of them.
“To better serve American students and families, changes are being made to how OCR will conduct its operations,” Madi Biedermann, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for communications, told CNN. “OCR’s staff consists of top performers with extensive experience enforcing federal civil rights laws. We are confident that OCR’s dedicated staff will fulfill its statutory responsibilities.”
Current OCR employees are also concerned about which civil rights investigations will be deprioritized, given the Trump administration’s emphasis on combating anti-Israel and antisemitic movements on college campuses.
On Monday, OCR sent letters to 60 colleges and universities under investigation for alleged violations of antisemitic harassment and discrimination. The letters warn institutions of potential consequences if they do not take adequate measures to protect Jewish students.
“The political appointees at OCR seem more concerned with politically-motivated directed investigations that rile up their base and that they can investigate through headlines rather than with complaints filed by everyday folks – regular taxpayers – who believe their civil rights have been violated and need help,” a former employee of the agency told CNN.
On March 7, OCR acting assistant secretary Craig Trainor issued a memo to staff, stating that the office must address the backlog of antisemitism complaints and blaming the previous administration for failing to adequately respond to these cases.
While the memo, reviewed by CNN, states that it should not be interpreted as “deprioritizing” other cases, employees point out a fundamental contradiction in their new directives.
“With a skeleton crew staff and direction to act on one category of cases, the others are necessarily de-prioritized,” a current employee said, pointing out that cases involving race and disability, for example, would be deprioritized.