GAO Report: Office for Civil Rights Wasted Money, Dismissed Complaints
The American Association of People with Disabilities:
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is deeply concerned by the findings of a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today regarding the impacts of the widespread staffing cuts at the US Department of Education (ED).
Some of the most concerning findings were those showing that ED wasted up to $38 million of taxpayer money by paying its investigators in the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) not to work. This number represents close to a quarter of the Office for Civil Rights’ annual budget for all of 2025, which could have been used to support students, educators, and school districts. During this time, ED also permanently closed seven of its twelve OCR regional offices and assigned its entire caseload to the remaining five offices.
ED also summarily dismissed 90% of the 9,000 discrimination complaints submitted during this period, without review. This came after 2024, a year in which a record number of complaints were submitted.
The Office for Civil Rights is an organization within the Department of Education that is charged with protecting students from discrimination based on race, sex, disability, color, national origin, and age. Students are often given pathways to file discrimination complaints within their school or college. When the school’s efforts are insufficient, or, as they are too often, non-existent, a student can then file an OCR complaint.
