The Biden administration has begun pleading with congressional Republicans to direct more funding to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war last year, two of the United States’s most influential civil rights groups have disagreed several times. The Anti-Defamation League, a group dedicated to fighting antisemitism, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group, presented their predicament of the Jewish and Palestinian students in radical ways.
However, they have agreed on one thing: both groups agreed that the federal office that investigates school discrimination and complaints has few resources.
According to the annual report of the Office for Civil Rights, an arm of the Education Department, complaints rise to the highest level ever last year. The office received 19,201 complaints in the 2023 fiscal year, a 2% rise from the high record of 18,804 complaints in the previous year.
The office has suffered from years of staff cuts and low recruiting despite Congress’s flat funding in the 2024 fiscal year. According to the agency, the number of complaints received by the office has tripled since 2019. The average number of full-time employees dropped by almost 70 over that time. Miguel Cardona, the education secretary, stated that “the office was decimated.”
Some outsiders worry the fallout on the campuses in response to the Middle East conflict has stressed the office to its all-time high. Many lawmakers in Washington negotiate the agency’s net annual budget deals; it is uncertain whether the current outrage on Capitol Hill over a rise in campus antisemitism could affect the frugal position of many Republicans. Some of them advocate for abolishing the federal Education Department altogether.
Civil Rights organizations, unlike Congress lawmakers, are united in their assessment that the agency requires additional funding. Is it reasonable to increase the agency’s funding? Certainly, said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy director.
The Anti-Defamation League’s director of government relations, Lauren Wolman, expressed similar urgency regarding the agency’s backlog in a statement to USA Today. According to Wolman, without sufficient resources to adequately investigate and address its increasing caseload, the Office for Civil Rights cannot protect the rights, safety, and well-being of students.
When a student or staff member at any K-12 school or college receiving federal funds experiences discrimination that they feel violates the law, they can file a complaint to the OCR. Title IV of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act are two of the six federal anti-discrimination laws the office enforces.
Staffers at the Officer for Civil Rights, including those at the regional offices across the nation, then decide whether those complaints warrant further investigation. If there is sufficient evidence, the division launches an inquiry. In cases where the department discovers a violation, federal officials arrange a resolution with the school administrators.
The latest reports also show a slight jump in disability-related complaints from 6,467 to 6,749 in the past year. According to Denise Marshall, disability rights advocate and CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, they historically abdicated their duty to ensure that school districts follow the law, which is the reason for the growing reliance on the Office for Civil Rights to defend students and staff with different needs.
