Donald Trump’s decision to close and dismantle the Department of Education has real consequences for children, families and communities. When an act of violence, harassment, or discrimination occurs against a student, the student or their family can file a complaint with the Department of Education, which is supposed to investigate the complaint and resolve the problem.
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For example, if a school discriminates against a student with a disability, it is not a crime, but it is a violation of federal law, which is normally the case when the Department of Education is involved.
Parents and students are filing complaints of sexual harassment, sexual assault, violence and discrimination, and the Trump administration is doing nothing.
According to a new report released by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the Trump administration has stopped enforcing federal laws that protect students.
THE report find:
Since taking office, President Trump has repeatedly ordered the illegal dismantling of the Department of Education, with devastating consequences for students, schools, colleges, and universities across the country. But these consequences have never been clearer than within the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the federal law enforcement agency charged with vigorously protecting students from discrimination.
In March 2025, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon laid off 299 of OCR’s 575 employees and closed 7 of 12 regional civil rights offices. When the courts intervened and forced the administration to reverse these layoffs, McMahon relented, but the damage was done. OCR never recovered, and thousands of discriminated students were left without help, without answers, and without justice.
Make no mistake about what OCR does and why it’s important. When a child with a disability is denied the education to which they are legally entitled, they call OCR. When a child is sexually harassed at school and the school does nothing, they call OCR. When a student experiences racial harassment, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or other discrimination based on common ancestry, they call OCR.
OCR exists because Congress decided decades ago that the federal government had an obligation to protect the civil rights of every American student. This is a promise to the 65.3 million students enrolled in schools, colleges and universities across the country.
The people who have not been protected are, in many cases, children, and as we will see below, the results of what the Trump administration is doing are devastating.