By Eve Hill
This week, the Trump Administration slashed nearly 50% of the Department of Education’s staff, shuttering 7 out of 12 civil rights offices and gutting the Digital Access Team. These drastic cuts don’t just impact bureaucratic processes—they directly threaten the rights and futures of millions of students and job seekers with disabilities.
What’s at Stake?
Despite talk of reassigning the Department’s responsibilities to other agencies, no such transition has taken place. The Department of Education is still responsible for:
- Distributing $15 billion in special education funding to states.
- Investigating complaints of disability discrimination in federally funded schools and colleges.
- Administering $4 billion for vocational rehabilitation programs that help job seekers with disabilities.
With such a dramatic reduction in staffing, the Department simply cannot fulfill these essential duties.
A Crisis for Civil Rights
Every year, the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) receives nearly 23,000 discrimination complaints, and about 35% of them involve disability discrimination or failure to provide proper special education services. Even before these cuts, OCR was struggling to keep up. Previously, the office resolved about 16,000 cases annually. Now, with only 5 offices remaining, that number is expected to drop to just 7,000.
What does this mean?
- Many complaints won’t even be investigated.
- Students facing discrimination will have no recourse.
- Schools may feel emboldened to continue—or even increase—discriminatory practices.
No Safety Net
Private education attorneys, like those at my firm, cannot pick up the slack. Unlike the Department of Education, we can’t withdraw federal funding from non-compliant schools. And thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller, private lawsuits can’t even recover damages for the emotional distress students with disabilities suffer due to discrimination.
Without federal oversight, schools will have little incentive to ensure equal access to education for students with disabilities.
The Digital Divide Widens
As education increasingly moves online, digital accessibility is more critical than ever. Previously, the Department of Education assembled a Digital Access Team to ensure that school websites and apps complied with accessibility standards. That team has now been cut by more than half—right when its work is needed the most.
New ADA regulations require that public schools, colleges, and universities make their websites and apps accessible within the next two to three years. Yet, with these devastating staff reductions, enforcement of these rules will be nearly impossible.
The Future of Vocational Rehabilitation at Risk
Beyond education, these cuts threaten employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The Department of Education provides funding for vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs—crucial services that help individuals with disabilities find and maintain employment. The federal government covers 78.7% of VR funding, and the Department ensures states use this money effectively.
Without oversight, there’s a real danger that states could push more people with disabilities into sheltered, subminimum-wage jobs, rather than meaningful employment opportunities.
The Bottom Line
This isn’t just about budgets and bureaucracy. These cuts have real, devastating consequences for students and workers with disabilities. Civil rights protections, access to education, and pathways to employment are all on the line.
The fight isn’t over. Congress has the power to intervene. We must demand that lawmakers protect the essential functions of the Department of Education—because no student, no job seeker, and no person with a disability should be left behind.
About Eve Hill:
Eve Hill, one of the nation’s leading disability and civil rights attorneys, co-leads Inclusivity. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, where she was responsible for oversight of the Division’s disability rights enforcement and educational civil rights implementation. Her responsibilities included enforcement, regulation, and policy development regarding accessibility requirements for websites and other digital technology; Olmstead community integration requirements in employment and education; and disability rights in education, law enforcement, and health care.
About Inclusivity Strategic Consulting:
Inclusivity Strategic Consulting works to help government and private entities navigate a clear path to web accessibility to best serve all of their audiences and minimize potential liability. Inclusivity can help organizations adopt policies and procedures, priorities, and contractual requirements to make their websites and mobile apps accessible and keep them accessible into the future. Inclusivity is part of Brown, Goldstein & Levy, a leading civil rights law firm with offices in Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C.