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Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order halting federal funds for schools and universities that impose coronavirus vaccine mandates, on February 14, 2025.In the three-and-a-half weeks since Donald Trump returned to the presidency, investigations by the agency that handles allegations of civil rights violations in the nation’s schools and colleges have ground to a halt.
The shift at the OCR comes as Trump has called the Education Department a “con job” and is expected to issue an executive order that the department be dismantled. In her confirmation hearing on Thursday, Trump’s nominee to be education secretary, Linda McMahon, said she hadn’t decided whether to cut funding to the OCR,that mostly focused on education research and data on learning and the country’s schools.
Students and families often turn to the OCR after they feel their concerns have not been addressed by their school districts. The process is free, which means even if families can’t afford a lawyer to pursue a lawsuit, they may still get relief — access to disabilities services or increased safety at school, for example.
The department’s power to hold schools accountable when they fail to protect students and provide relief in real time — while a student is still in school — makes its work urgent, civil rights attorneys and department staff said. “Many of these students are in crisis,” the employee said. “They are counting on some kind of intervention to get that student back in school and graduate or get accommodations.”
Denver schools spokesperson Scott Pribble called the investigation “unprecedented.” He added, “This is not the first all-gender bathroom we have in a school, but it’s the first time an investigation has been opened by OCR.” There are other girls’ restrooms in the school; only one was converted to an all-gender restroom after students lobbied school administrators to do so.
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