Donald Trump’s decision to close and dismantle the Department of Education has real consequences for children, families and communities. When there is violence, harassment or discrimination against a student, the student or family can file a complaint with the Ministry of Education, which must investigate the complaint and resolve the problem.
For example, if a school discriminates against a student with a disability, it is not a crime, but a violation of federal law, which would normally be the case when the Department of Education would become involved.
Parents and students are filing complaints about sexual harassment, assault, violence and discrimination, and the Trump administration is doing nothing.
According to a new report released by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who serves as a ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the Trump administration has stopped enforcing federal laws that protect students.
The report found:
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 nowhere have these consequences been more apparent than at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the federal law enforcement agency charged with robustly 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 government to rescind the dismissals, McMahon relented, but the damage had already been done. OCR never recovered and thousands of students who were discriminated against are left without help, without answers, and without justice.
Make no mistake about what OCR does and why it matters. When a child with a disability is denied the education he or she is legally entitled to, they call it OCR. If a child is sexually harassed at school and the school does nothing, they call OCR. When a student is exposed to racial harassment, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or other discrimination based on shared ancestry, they call OCR.
OCR exists because Congress decided decades ago that the federal government has a duty to protect the civil rights of every student in America. This is a promise to the 65.3 million students enrolled in schools, colleges and universities across the country.
The people left unprotected are, in many cases, children, and as we will see below, the results of what the Trump administration is doing are devastating.
