February 5, 2026

The Center on Disability joins other disability rights organizations with our great concern over the findings of a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the costs and impacts of extensive staffing cuts at the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR). 

OCR is charged with protecting students from discrimination based on race, sex, disability, color, national origin, and age. When a school’s response to a discrimination complaint is not sufficient,  a student can file an OCR complaint. If an OCR investigation finds the school violated a student’s civil rights, OCR can hold the school accountable for any needed changes.

In March 2025, claiming cuts were needed for “efficiency” and “accountability,” the administration tried to fire more than half of OCR’s civil rights attorneys and staff, 247 individuals. The courts blocked this effort, and the Education Department (ED) had to keep and continue to pay these employees. However, the Department didn’t allow them to return to work. GAO estimates it cost between $28 million and $38 million to pay the salary and benefits of those workers during this almost 9-month period. During this time, the ED also permanently closed seven of its twelve OCR regional offices and moved their caseloads to the remaining offices.

From March through September 2025, OCR resolved over 7,000 of the over 9,000 discrimination complaints. Roughly 90% of the resolved cases were dismissed without review. In comparison, in 2017 during Trump’s first term, OCR investigated and reached agreements in about 10 times as many disability discrimination cases as it did in 2025.

“Every child in America should be able to get a good education no matter where they live, what their religious beliefs are, or whether they have a disability,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, who requested the GAO study. “Instead, the Trump administration fired half of those working to protect the civil rights of students and wasted as much as $38 million in taxpayer dollars by preventing investigators from doing their jobs. That is unacceptable.”

The Center on Disability supports the recommendations of the American Association of People with Disabilities and other disability advocates that the administration:

• Maintain OCR’s function within the Department of Education, 
• Restore the Department’s tracking mechanisms to promote transparency concerning how and when complaints are being addressed, and 
• Communicate with students, educators, and administrators about the steps OCR is taking to strongly enforce civil rights laws so all students have equal access to education.  

In December 2025, many of the OCR staff returned to work, but the damage was done, and students’ civil rights were undermined. Steps need to be taken so this does not happen again.