Disability Scoop

The U.S. Department of Education dismissed the vast majority of discrimination complaints it received — likely including many based on disability — all while spending millions in an effort to fire staff charged with investigating such cases. A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that between March and September 2025, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights resolved more than 7,000 of the 9,000-plus discrimination complaints it received. In about 90% of cases, complaints were dismissed. At the same time, the Department of Education spent as much as $38 million to pay hundreds of staffers from the agency’s Office for Civil Rights who were on paid leave as a result of reduction in force and reorganization efforts, GAO said. The findings are especially alarming for students with disabilities, advocates say.

Education Department officials told GAO investigators that the civil rights office kept up with its workload and met its mission even while hundreds of staffers were on paid leave. But, Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate in Michigan who routinely helps families file complaints with the Education Department, described the Office for Civil Rights as “closed for business.” “I have heard nothing since last March, and neither have parents that I assisted with complaints,” said Lipsitt, who indicated that she has several hundred open complaints with the civil rights office.