90 Percent of Student Discrimination and Harassment Complaints Were Dismissed Last Year. Here's Why. | Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.

"President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education has created a crisis that critics long feared: leaving marginalized students vulnerable to misconduct with little federal intervention. A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan arm of Congress, paints a damning picture of how mass layoffs and the slashing of resources at the agency have significantly impacted the civil rights of students."

"The department's chief responsibility is to ensure that all students have equal access to education. However, its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) dismissed roughly 90 percent of the more than 9,000 new complaints of discrimination based on race, sex, disability and age it received from March to September 2025, the GAO found."

"The fact that the agency shuttered seven of its 12 regional civil rights offices and placed half of OCR personnel - 299 out of 575 staffers - on administrative leave last year contributed to the dismissals of most complaints. They were prohibited from working while on leave, adding to the backlog of cases."

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights dismissed approximately 90 percent of over 9,000 new discrimination complaints received between March and September 2025, according to a Government Accountability Office report. Mass layoffs and resource cuts at the agency have severely impacted student civil rights protections. The department closed seven of its twelve regional civil rights offices and placed half of OCR personnel on administrative leave, preventing them from investigating cases. This administrative leave cost taxpayers approximately $38 million in salaries and benefits over nine months. The dismissals raise concerns that the Education Department is systematically refusing to investigate civil rights cases rather than evaluating their individual merits, abandoning vulnerable students.

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