A Gutted Education Departments New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students
by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. In California, the federal government was deep into an investigation of alleged racial discrimination at a school district where, a parent said, students called a Black peer racial slurs and played whipping sounds from their cellphones during a lesson about slavery. Then the U.S. Department of Education in March suddenly closed the California regional outpost of its Office for Civil Rights and fired all its employees there. That investigation and others went silent.In South Dakota, the OCR abruptly terminated its work with a school district that had agreed to take steps to end discrimination against its Native American students. The same office that helped craft the agreement to treat indigenous students equally made a stunning about-face and decided in March that helping Native American students would discriminate against white students.During its first 100 days, as the Trump administration has dismantled the Education Department, one of its biggest targets has been the civil rights arm. Now, Education Secretary Linda McMahon is reorienting whats left of it. Part of that shift has been ordering investigations related to the administrations priorities, such as ending the participation of transgender girls and women in girls and womens sports. After hearing that a transgender woman from Wagner College in New York competed in a womens fencing tournament at the University of Maryland last month, the head of the OCR launched a special investigation into both schools and threatened their access to federal funding.Through internal memos and case data, interviews with more than a dozen current agency attorneys, and public records requests to school districts and other targets of investigations across the country, ProPublica has documented how the Trump administration has radically reshaped the OCR. Only 57 investigations that found a civil rights violation and led to change at a school or college were completed in March, ProPublica has learned. Only 51 were resolved by finding violations in April. The Biden administration completed as many as 200 investigations a month. Leadership under President Donald Trump also has made it easier for the OCR to drop discrimination complaints quickly. In March, 91% of cases closed by the office were dismissed without an investigation, and 89% were dismissed outright in April, according to internal case data obtained by ProPublica. Typically, 70% of cases are dismissed because they dont meet criteria to warrant an investigation. With more than half of the Education Departments civil rights offices closed and the division reduced to a fraction of its former staff, families pleas for updates and action have gone unheard. One OCR attorney, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, told ProPublica that her caseload went from 60 to 380 as she absorbed cases previously handled by employees who worked in offices that had been closed. Some remaining employees have not been able to access documents, voicemail and email of fired employees.As with civil rights divisions in other federal agencies that the Trump administration has fundamentally altered, the OCR has worked for decades to uphold constitutional rights against discrimination based on disability, race and gender.OCR is the most useless its ever been, and its the most dangerous its ever been. And by useless, I mean unavailable. Unable to do the work, said Michael Pillera, who until recently was an OCR attorney in Washington, D.C. He is now with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.Investigating cases that allege racism, discrimination based on sexual orientation or mistreatment of students with disabilities now requires permission from Trump appointees, according to a memo from OCR leadership. As a result, thousands of discrimination investigations are idled, even ones that were nearing a resolution when Trump took office again.I thought we were somewhere, and now we are back to square one because they are closed, said K.D., the mother of the Black California student who said her daughter has been called racial epithets by her classmates. She emailed the agency more than a month ago to try to get an update on the investigation, but said the agency has not responded. ProPublica is identifying her by initials to protect her childs privacy. I never would have imagined that something so essential would go away, she said. Education Department spokespeople did not respond to questions and requests for comment sent over several weeks about changes in the civil rights division.The OCR attorney who said she is working through 380 cases said the job is now impossible.The people who remain are doing all they can. Were doing all we can. But it isnt enough, and it keeps us up at night, she said.Another OCR attorney who, like others, asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said the administrations new vision for civil rights enforcement has harmed families.We were sort of the last bit of hope for them, he said, and now theyre calling and emailing and saying, Hey, I thought you all were going to help me. Protesters rally outside of the headquarters of the Department of Education in Washington in March. More than half of the departments Office of Civil Rights outposts have been closed, and more than half of its employees have been laid off since the new administration took over. (Jason Andrew for ProPublica) A Shadow DivisionThe arduous, grinding work undertaken by OCR attorneys is starkly different from the high-speed investigations that the Education Department announces in press releases every few days.The OCR, historically one of the governments largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, has been known for being a neutral fact-finder. Its investigators followed a process to determine whether complaints from the public met legal criteria for a civil rights claim, then carried out investigations methodically. Help Us Report on How the Department of Education Is Handling Civil Rights Cases We want to better understand how changes at the Office for Civil Rights are affecting students, families and school communities. If you have recently submitted a civil rights complaint or have a pending case, please get in touch. Share Your Story The vast majority of investigations were based on discrimination complaints from students and families, and a large share of those were related to disability discrimination. The inquiries typically took months and, in complex cases, years. The lengthy investigations sometimes were a source of criticism. The agency didnt share details of the investigations until they were completed, and the agreements often involved federal oversight going forward.Investigations being publicized now have largely bypassed the agencys civil rights attorneys, according to Education Department employees. McMahon and OCR head Craig Trainor created what amounts to a shadow division. The Trump administration has ordered more than a dozen investigations in the past three months on its own, not initiated by an outside complainant. These directed investigations are typically rare; there were none during President Joseph Bidens administration.The investigations have targeted schools with transgender athletes, gender-neutral bathrooms and initiatives that the administration views as discriminatory to white students. OCR attorneys told ProPublica theyve been given prewritten letters, which theyve reluctantly signed, to send to targets of these investigations. Some letters describe transgender girls as biological males, which is ideologically pointed language that OCR attorneys say theyve never used before.Theyre blowing through past precedents, past practices, best practices, said Catherine Lhamon, who led OCR under former Presidents Barack Obama and Biden and departed the office in January. And theyre not even attempting to appear like neutral arbiters of the law.In a first, McMahon and Trainor created ways to divert complaints and investigations away from the OCRs legal experts entirely. The administration made an End DEI portal that bypasses the traditional online complaint system and seeks only grievances about diversity, equity and inclusion in schools. Unlike the regular complaint system, the diversity portal submissions are not routed to OCR staff.We have no idea where that portal goes, who it goes to, how they review the cases. No idea, said the attorney who said he struggles with being unable to help families. That avoids us interfering with the games theyre trying to play, if they silo off the real civil rights lawyers.McMahon then announced a Title IX Special Investigations Team last month to work with the Department of Justice and appointed Trainor to it. It launches its own investigations into schools that include transgender girls in athletics. In an internal memo to the new team that was obtained by ProPublica, Trainor defined the special teams purpose: To effectively and efficiently address the increasing volume of Title IX single-sex sports/spaces cases, expedite those investigations and resolutions, and collaborate seamlessly with DOJ to conclude investigations that go to DOJ for enforcement.Theres no indication that more complaints related to transgender students are coming from the public, according to internal case data. Last month, in what appears to be the first case assigned to the Title IX team, the group notified the University of Maryland and Wagner College that it would investigate each school. The investigation began after Fox News and other media reported about a fencing tournament at the University of Maryland in which a transgender player from Wagner competed. Trainor signed the notification letters himself, a departure from Lhamons practice.A Wagner College spokesperson declined to comment. A University of Maryland spokesperson declined to comment about the investigation but said the tournament, while on the universitys campus, was run by USA Fencing.The public used to be able to see what the OCR was investigating. But an online database that is supposed to list all investigations underway hasnt been updated since Trump took office. At that time, about 12,000 pending investigations were listed. Among them were two related to a familys complaints that their California school district discriminated against students with disabilities, including by barricading them inside what it called a reset room. But then the OCR closed its California office and fired its employees.All work came to a halt. They stopped responding. Nothing was being done to stop the practice and protect kids, Genevieve Goldstone, the parent of the Del Mar Union School District student who filed the disability discrimination complaint, said in an interview. My federal complaints were meant to protect more kids and stop the abuses in the district.The district said it could not comment on the pending investigation but said it participated in more than a dozen interviews with an OCR attorney. It also said it conducted its own review of the allegations and determined that they were unsubstantiated.OCR attorneys say they have been repeatedly blindsided by public announcements about policy changes and investigations. To find out what Trainor and McMahon have launched on their behalf, they check the Education Departments website daily for press releases.Those statements sometimes quote Trainor preemptively saying a school appears to violate civil rights law. The attorneys worry they will have no choice, despite what their investigations uncover, but to find against schools that have already been excoriated by the department publicly. For example, in a press release announcing an investigation into a transgender athlete participating in girls track and field in Portland Public Schools in Oregon, Trainor said, We will not allow the Portland Public Schools District or any other educational entity that receives federal funds to trample on the antidiscrimination protections that women and girls are guaranteed under law.A third current OCR attorney, who asked not to be named for fear of losing her job, said the administration is misinterpreting civil rights law. Its subverting our office, or weaponizing it in these ways, without following our process, she said. Conservative groups with complaints about diversity or transgender students have been able to file complaints directly with Trainor and get quick results another norm-breaking way to operate outside of the OCRs protocol.America First Legal, a group founded by Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller that considers itself the answer to the ACLU, emailed Trainor a few days after Trumps Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling executive order. The order directs schools to stop teaching about or supporting diversity, equity and gender identity.AFL respectfully requests that the Department of Education open investigations into the following public-school districts in Northern Virginia for continuing violations of Title IX, the letter read, listing five districts that have policies welcoming to transgender students. Senior leadership in Washington opened the cases the following week. America First issued a press release headlined VICTORY. The group declined to comment further. First image: A letter from Craig Trainor, the Education Departments acting assistant secretary for civil rights, claims that American educational institutions have discriminated against white and Asian students. Second image: A letter addressed to the superintendent of the Denver Public Schools announces a Title IX investigation into a gender-neutral bathroom. (Obtained and highlighted by ProPublica) Backtracking on Civil RightsRemaking the OCR isnt just about increasing caseloads and reordering political priorities. The Trump administration now is taking steps to roll back OCRs previous civil rights work.Last month, Trump issued an executive order that directs all federal agencies, including the Education Department, to stop enforcing cases involving policies that disproportionately affect certain groups for example, when Black students are disciplined more harshly than white students for the same infractions or when students with disabilities are suspended more than any other group even though they represent a small percentage of student enrollment.Trumps order requires the agencies to assess all pending investigations, lawsuits, and consent judgements that consider disproportionate discipline and take appropriate action. Complaints made to the OCR that students were unfairly disciplined could be thrown out; existing enforcement actions or monitoring of schools that had disciplined students disproportionately could be revoked.The OCR under Trainor did this in Rapid City, South Dakota even before the executive order. About a year ago, the office had signed an agreement with Rapid City Area Schools after an investigation found that the districts Native American students were disciplined far more harshly than white ones. They also were kept from enrolling in advanced courses.The OCR said that when speaking with an investigator, the superintendent of schools at the time said that Native American students in her district had higher truancy rates because they operated on what she termed Indian Time. She said, too, that they dont value education, according to the investigations findings. The former superintendent, Nicole Swigart, denied saying any of that. I recognize those comments are horrendous, Swigart said in an interview with ProPublica. She noted that the OCR investigation was opened in 2010 and that she first spoke to an investigator in 2022. Im not lying when I say I didnt say it. I didnt say it, and I dont know where it came from.In the agreement with the OCR, the district promised to examine its practices and make things right; the OCR would monitor its progress. The district also brought in a new superintendent.But last month, the OCR abruptly terminated that agreement, based on its differing interpretation of civil rights law. The OCRs new view is that equity and diversity efforts discriminate against white students. It was, in the view of agency attorneys, the most severe breach of the OCRs mission and methods to date. There was no public announcement.Native students in Rapid City just lost a layer of protection, the Lakota Peoples Law Project announced on Facebook. Native students are still being pushed out of classrooms and denied opportunities. Darren Thompson, who is Ojibwe, said the OCRs decision to abandon the agreement was another cycle of the federal government failing to uphold its promises.And this time, they are partisan, political, said Thompson, who works for the nonprofit Sacred Defense Fund affiliated with the Lakota group in Rapid City.In response to questions from ProPublica, the school district said it has completed much of the work including broader access to educational opportunities and an improved behavior tracking process and plans to continue it even without federal oversight. But it also said this week that under the OCRs new directives, we must shift our approach. The district did not elaborate on what will change.Its unclear whether the OCR has ended agreements with other districts or colleges. Education Department spokespeople did not respond to questions from ProPublica. Pushing BackSome subjects of the OCRs new directives and investigations have capitulated. A school district in Tumwater, Washington, that Trainor targeted for allowing a transgender basketball player from an opposing team to compete responded by voting to support the state athletic association excluding trans players altogether.But some are pushing back.Denver Public Schools was the first target of one of Trainors directed investigations in late January over the existence of one all-gender, multistall bathroom on one floor of a Denver high school. According to communication obtained by ProPublica through public records requests, the district called out the OCR for continuing to take a different approach with this case without explanation, a case with no complainant who is awaiting any form of relief or remedy.Kristin Bailey, a Denver Public Schools attorney, wrote to an OCR supervisor that the way the investigation is being handled appears to be retaliatory.Since February, at least half a dozen lawsuits have been filed to try to stop the dismantling of the Education Department and its civil rights functions among them, suits by Democratic state attorneys general and from the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. A recent suit by the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates on behalf of children and their parents all of whom have pending complaints alleging discrimination claims theyre suffering from the OCRs abandonment of its core mission. The NAACP also sued the department, McMahon and Trainor, citing the End DEI portal and seeking a halt to such anti-diversity efforts. And the Victim Rights Law Center, representing students and parents, sued to try to restore what has been cut from the OCR so the agency can fulfill its mandate. It noted that under McMahon and Trainor, cherry-picked investigations appear to be the only matters the Department is currently pursuing. Those lawsuits are pending. The government has argued in the NAACP lawsuit that the group lacks standing, and in the other it has not filed a response.Several OCR attorneys told ProPublica that they hope these groups and school districts continue to push back. In the meantime, they said, they will continue to try to work on behalf of the public to uphold the nations civil rights laws.I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, helping the people I can help, and keep my eye on the long game, said a fourth OCR attorney. Hopefully were still here and can help rebuild in the future.
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