Schools draw a record 22,687 civil rights complaints as DOJ allocates about 40 lawyers to handle
Source: Fortune ·
Since January 2025, the administration has closed seven of OCR’s 12 regional offices, and resolution agreements fell to less than 1% of pending cases.
From the source
Many people are not familiar with the Office for Civil Rights, an office within the U.S. Department of Education that enforces statutes that protect students from discrimination. So, it might help to consider a recent example of this office’s work. In December 2022, the Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, found that Ottumwa Community School District, about 90 miles southeast of Des Moines, Iowa, had violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to address racial harassment. Title VI bars schools receiving federal funds from discriminating based on race, color or national origin. The harassment was so severe that the office found that the student “was subjected to a racially hostile environment.” OCR also found that the school and district “failed to address the pervasive racial harassment of which it was aware.” The harassment spanned two school years, during which that student was called “blackie,” “slave,” “cotton picker” and other racial slurs. One white student knelt…