Education Week

Parents whose discrimination complaints have gone unresolved and have been further delayed are suing the U.S. Department of Education over its mass layoffs, which cut deeply into the agency’s civil rights investigation arm. The lawsuit—filed in federal court in Washington on Friday by two parents and The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, which advocates for students with disabilities—argues that the dismissal of nearly half of the agency’s staff has “decimated” the Education Department’s office for civil rights, “leaving students and families with little chance of their complaints being processed and investigated and sabotaging OCR’s ability to fulfill its statutory and regulatory mandate to enforce civil rights laws in schools.” The parents are asking a judge to find the Education Department’s actions unlawful, and for the department to “restore the investigation and processing capacity of OCR” and process complaints quickly and equitably.