Family on the Civil Rights Team after Trump’s cuts to education

When Rebecca, a 48-year-old mother from Michigan, needed help from her disabled son, she turned to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

Rebecca’s 13-year-old adopted son received fetal alcohol syndrome, ADHD and other mental health diagnoses requiring professional educational support. His symptoms could include aggression to peers, teachers, or objects, and he was stopped after the explosion last fall.

Rebecca said the district quarantined her son from her peers for several months, isolated by special education teachers and limited contact teachers.

In October 2024, Rebecca filed a complaint with the Civil Rights Office, alleging that she violated the federal disability law and that her son “discriminated against and denied free and appropriate public education.” She claimed that the school allowed him to “go to school in a 1:1 separate environment for two hours per day at school.” Time gradually returned, Rebecca said, but he remained isolated. The district did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rebecca had personal attorneys and education advocates, but OCR attorneys from the Cleveland office were quick to promote mediation with the school district in April.

But before that happened, the Trump administration fired all staff in the Cleveland office, including a lawyer who helped Rebecca’s son, and exempt her from the lawsuit.

“I have no other options for this kid,” Rebecca said. Rebecca asked the BBC to protect her privacy by withholding her last name and son’s name. “They’re doing politics with my little boy, and I don’t think it’s fair.”

The sudden firing and subsequent confusion were the precursors of President Donald Trump’s next big move. It is about trying to completely dismantle the Ministry of Education.

On Thursday, he signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “promote closures” of the department. The order is likely to pose legal challenges as Congress, not the president, actually retains the authority to dismantle federal agencies.

However, the move has left many Americans, like Rebecca, uncertain about their child’s future.

Press Director Caroline Levitt told media on Thursday that the department will not be shut down completely, but what remains will be much smaller and will focus on “critical features” such as federal student loans.

OCR will be significantly reduced in “scale and size,” she said.

The reduction has already begun. On March 11, the Trump administration used a process known as power cuts to halve staff and make dramatic cuts to the department.

McMahon said the downsizing demonstrated “efficiency, accountability and ensuring they are directed to where they matter most – to students, parents and teachers.”

The Department of Education has little oversight of the day-to-day operations of most U.S. schools, but it plays an important role in enforcing federal education guidelines and policies.

The Civil Rights Bureau was one of the most intense hit divisions in its first round of fire. The administration has closed seven of its 12 regional offices, including major metropolitan areas such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco.

This month, all staff at OCR’s Cleveland office received an email saying their squad is “abolized” as Rebecca and her husband tried to understand what the departmental change means for their son’s case.

The news left a Cleveland lawyer working on a case with a disability because of “feeling hopelessness.”

The lawyer told the BBC not only about the individual cases still underway.

“The effectiveness of each case can sometimes be much greater in terms of educating the school and creating something good for others in the district,” said the attorney who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from the administration.

Parents and OCR lawyers have long been unhappy with the agency’s backlog and reduced staff. They fear that the new cuts will make it impossible for the already overwhelming department to handle the tens of thousands of complaints received each year.

The OCR job, tasked with ensuring that schools comply with American civil rights laws, is to ensure that students are not discriminated against because of their disability, gender, race, or religion. Reliefs could be as easy as labs would add accessibility features to school buildings or to sit with myopic children in front of classes. But the office also tackles complex cases that include discrimination, bullying, sexual harassment and assault.

Before his executive order there were already signs that the office’s mission was changing.

OCR staff had received office guidance to prioritize incidents, including anti-sensitivity flames, the AP reported. Craig Trainer, the department’s deputy director of civil rights, said he will take on cases involving university trans athletes to combat “radical transgender ideology.”

On March 14, the Ministry of Education said it had launched a survey of more than 50 universities as part of the administration’s move to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.

Staff remaining in their work said the new leadership at the Department of Education provided little or no guidance on the reassignment of thousands of pending cases, including Rebecca. They also worried that incidents involving racial minorities or people with disabilities would not pay appropriate attention.

According to the OCR annual report, the office recorded 22,687 complaints in 2024. Even as cases increased over the years, staffing declined. In 1981, OCR had 1,100 full-time employees. By 2024, it has reached 588.

“We were already flooding the cases very incredibly,” said a Cleveland lawyer. “I was never proud of our processing time.”

With the new cut, they said, “We won’t be able to do this work.”

But parents and educators say they won’t let the Department of Education close without a fight.

Nikki Carter, an Alabama mother and disability advocate, is one of two plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by a council of parental lawyers and supporters, with the Department of Education, McMahon and trainers suing for mass employment cuts.

She was already familiar with the frustration of the OCR backlog. Her own case, filed during the Biden administration in December 2022, was dragged out in sporadic updates.

The lawsuit halted Ms Carter’s racism case, where McMahon’s actions are being handled by the OCR, claiming she “did not show that the investigation has resumed.”

“There was a lack of communication throughout the process,” Carter told the BBC. “When the Trump administration came in, it made the situation even worse and even more difficult.”

Despite her complaints with the OCR, she believed that an office was still needed to help victims of racism. She hoped that the lawsuit would not only restore the office, but would improve it.

“The children, families and advocates, they don’t get the right process,” Carter said. “They are only denied basic federal education rights, so when they can’t get it at the local and state level, the only hope we have is to rely on the federal government.

“We need OCR to return to work,” she said. “And also requires that the OCR be held responsible for their actions or lack thereof.”

Meanwhile, Rebecca moved her son to a district school for a student with an emotional disability. However, she still wants OCR to negotiate a special tutor for her son and educate district staff on how to help students like him. She recently learned that she would be transferring to the Denver office where her son’s case is still operating, but has not received any other updates.

“He was treated very poorly and differently because of the way his brain is structured,” she said. “I want to see someone take accountability for the way he was treated.”