Education advocates in Massachusetts are concerned that the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and cut staff are making it difficult to investigate complaints of civil rights violations.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is responsible for enforcing a range of federal rights, including access to special education and protection from discrimination based on race, gender, disability and other protected classes. Data from the office show it has resolved only two cases in Massachusetts this year — and only one of those came after Trump’s inauguration. That’s a notable drop from prior years. The Office for Civil Rights reached an average of eight agreements annually with K-12 schools in the state from 2021 to 2024.
The single case settled by the civil rights agency in September found Weymouth Public Schools had failed to make an afterschool program accessible to a disabled student. The Weymouth school district agreed to ensure its program fully complies with federal disability laws and to reimburse the parent for any costs incurred to find other afterschool care.
Advocates in Massachusetts say the regional civil rights office — which was responsible for oversight in six New England states — was known for thorough investigations and transparent outcomes. That regional office closed after staffing cuts in March.
Leon Smith, a lawyer and executive director of the Boston-based nonprofit Citizens for Juvenile Justice, said its closure is a major loss for accountability.
“You could file a complaint to OCR (Office for Civil Rights) and you could seek redress, giving pressure from the federal government to compel your local district to do what it should be doing,” Smith said. “With all these staff laid off, with DOE being gutted, we’re taking away one of our key oversight and enforcement mechanisms that can empower parents to in advocating for their young people.”
Maura Sullivan, CEO of The Arc of Massachusetts, a nonprofit advocating for people with autism and intellectual disabilities, is also worried about the loss of accountability.
”The oversight is gone, the expertise has been dissolved, and basically the referee has left the field,“ she said. ”The goals of the federal administration are to continue to fragment and dissolve these important programs and laws.”
Last month, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced plans to accelerate the dismantling of her agency, by handing off grant-making and other responsibilities to the Labor Department and other federal departments.
She also has called for shifting civil rights investigations to the Department of Justice. Nobody from the Department of Justice responded to requests for comment from GBH News.
During the recent government shutdown, the Trump administration fired 121 federal workers in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the vast majority of its 135 total staffers. They were reinstated, but are protected only until Jan 30.
McMahon has said these actions will create more efficiency. But Sullivan and other critics said schoolchildren needing protections will “fall through the cracks.”
Advocates said they are hopeful that the state can handle enforcement and provide funding that’s been cut by Washington, but it remains unclear to what extent Massachusetts can address gaps left by the federal government.
“In Massachusetts, we’re relying on our incredible governor and legislature to hold up our special education,’’ said Sullivan. “But we know without the funding and without the oversight, there will be inequities across the state.”
Officials from the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education told GBH News that they are still assessing impacts of the federal cuts to their department and to school districts.
“Our students and educators need a supportive federal education agency, and I have serious concerns about how future federal grants and supports will be handled,” Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez wrote in a statement last month. “I want families to know that in Massachusetts, we will continue to ‘cherish’ our public schools, as required in our state’s constitution.”
Diana Santiago, the legal director at the nonprofit Massachusetts Advocates for Children, said she is concerned about the state education agency’s capacity to investigate discrimination and harassment cases.
She pointed to a troubled state-run Problem Resolution System, an online program responsible for handling complaints related to federal and state education laws. A federal investigation cited that program in 2023 for failing to properly investigate complaints from parents of children with disabilities.
“It’s a system that is under a lot of strain. But that is one option that families have,” said Santiago.
Smith from Citizens for Juvenile Justice said the state should beef up and improve its program for investigating complaints about schools meeting the mandates of state and federal education laws.
“So you’re removing the federal apparatus. We need to do more on the state level to be able to fill that void,” he said. “But on the state level, there’s a need for significant improvement.”
