After hundreds of civil rights employees were placed on administrative leave last year, the U.S. Department of Education called staff back to its Office of Civil Rights amid a massive backlog of discrimination complaints. Workers and union leaders say the disruption left tens of thousands of cases unresolved and students without timely civil rights protections.
Tag: Office of Civil Rights
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Education Dept. scrambles as civil rights backlog explodes
The U.S. Department of Education is urgently recalling hundreds of Office for Civil Rights employees—fired during a March reduction-in-force—to return on Dec. 15 as unresolved civil rights complaints soar past 25,000. The sudden move follows months of staffing turmoil, ongoing litigation, and a near-collapse of OCR’s capacity, leaving students and families facing long delays in discrimination investigations.