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There was a time George Finley Jr. was on the honor roll.
After the seventh grader started having epileptic seizures a couple of years ago, he experienced memory loss. Now, he’s far behind where he should be academically. The Detroit Public Schools Community District agreed in November to pay for outside tutoring to help him catch up, records show.
That still hasn’t happened, and the school year is near its end.
“My son is not progressing,” said his mother, Sheri King.
She was close to getting an answer from the district. But the Trump administration gutted the U.S. Department of Education’s workforce weeks later, and the civil rights attorney who was helping facilitate King’s communication with George’s school stopped responding to her emails. His position, along with hundreds of others, was eliminated. With new leadership, the department shuttered more than half of its regional civil rights enforcement offices, which had investigated and resolved complaints for decades. Now, remaining offices must take on the backlog of cases.
King is in the same position as many families in Michigan and across the country. Parents of students with disabilities and those who experience racial discrimination or sexual violence in schools are uncertain of the fate of their federal complaints. Many say they have not gotten updates on their cases since the regional offices closed. Some, like King, fear what the future will look like for their children.
Hundreds of federal civil rights cases were put on hold after President Donald Trump took office in January. On Feb. 20, Craig Trainor, now the deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Office for Civil Rights, ended the pause on cases that solely dealt with disability discrimination. Staff were still told not to pursue race- and sex-based discrimination cases. At the same time, under new guidance, targeted investigations of school programs that promote diversity and policies that support transgender students were initiated.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon lifted the freeze on all cases on March 6. However, the department laid off the staff of seven of its 12 civil rights enforcement offices on March 12. The closures included the Cleveland office, which handled cases for Michigan and Ohio.
Advocates said the move effectively decimated the department’s workforce and sabotaged its ability to enforce civil rights protections for students.
Former attorneys at the Department of Education said the nearly 50% reduction in staff will undoubtedly add to an existing backlog of cases.
“The reality is, cases aren’t moving, period,” one former Cleveland office staff attorney told Chalkbeat on the condition of anonymity due to fears of retribution.
The gutting of the department added to an existing backlog of thousands of open complaints. In Michigan alone, there are currently 782 civil rights cases under investigation, according to the department’s list of records published online. Of those, 462 are disability discrimination cases. Those investigations were opened before the dramatic changes to the department.
Michigan special education advocates said many of the parents they work with have not heard updates on their cases. Some had pending mediation hearing dates with their districts scheduled that have since passed.
Jacquelyn Binford, whose son, Rocco, is in first grade in Chippewa Valley Schools, was scheduled to have a mediation hearing on March 19 for a complaint she filed in December 2023. She hoped the district would agree to provide more occupational therapy to help her son develop his motor skills.
The district’s representative never responded to confirm the hearing date.
Since then, all of Michigan’s cases were assigned to the federal department’s Denver office. Binford said she hasn’t gotten any updates about the case.
“Here we are now,” Binford said. “This could have already been resolved.”
Chippewa Valley Schools did not respond to a request for comment on Binford’s case. The Detroit Public Schools Community District did not respond to a request for comment on King’s.
Critical services, safety at stake for children, workers say
The Office for Civil Rights is charged with investigating and enforcing federal protections for students in K-12 schools, as well colleges and universities. It also facilitates mediations to come to voluntary agreements between parties.
The department is mandated to promptly investigate and resolve complaints against local and state education agencies as an impartial third party.
The federal laws it seeks compliance with include Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which ensures students with disabilities have a right to equal access to educational opportunities and services.
Quickly resolving complaints is crucial to the safety and educational outcomes of many children, former federal workers say.
“There could be a kid staying at home because they’re the survivor of sexual assault and there are no measures in place to ensure their safety,” the former Cleveland staff member said. “Or there could be a student with a behavior plan that’s not being implemented and that student is being restrained.”
Before his departure, the attorney said there was a case close to mediation that involved a high school student in a juvenile detention facility. The complaint alleged the facility did not have the special education services that would allow the child to graduate.
“I did feel like there could be a pathway to see this kid graduate,” the attorney said. “We had to cancel mediation because we were told not to do any communication with schools.”
Because the department missed the opportunity to intervene before the end of the school year, the attorney said the window to help the student graduate is gone.
A large part of the work of attorneys at the Cleveland office fell outside of investigations and mediations to reach early resolutions, another former staff member told Chalkbeat.
In King’s case, a mediation agreement was already made. But, the mother told the attorney who was assigned to her original complaint that the district was not complying with the tutoring portion of the agreement.
The attorney was in the process of finding the point of contact in the district to finalize George’s enrollment and payment for the tutoring program before the Cleveland office was shuttered.
Binford said while she waits for an answer from Chippewa Valley Schools about whether they will provide in-school occupational therapy for Rocco, he struggles to keep up with his peers in gym class. He still needs help developing his muscles to open and close zippers, write, and cut food.
Michigan families are also awaiting the outcome of an Office for Civil Rights investigation that found the Michigan Department of Education allegedly violated the rights of students with disabilities during COVID-era school closures.
The state agency was accused of repeatedly giving incorrect information about students’ rights to parents and schools, according to legal filings. The federal investigation also alleged the state agency knew districts were failing to provide services to students with disabilities.
The federal investigation alleged students at the Michigan School for the Deaf, which is operated by the Michigan education agency, had their instructional time reduced by 43% during the 2020-21 school year. Students didn’t get speech language pathology, social work, or visual impairment consultation services for long periods of time, according to the federal agency.
The complaint seeks compensatory services for all students with disabilities in the state who were denied adequate educational support during that time.
Attorneys for the agency asked multiple times for the case to be thrown out. The Office for Civil Rights accused the state agency of attempting to shield itself from scrutiny and said in case filings it had not provided any proof that its alleged violations have been remedied.
Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate who filed the initial complaint against the state agency, said the administrative law judge assigned to the case was not impacted by the cuts to the Department of Education. She said a final hearing date for the administrative judge to issue a ruling has not yet been set.
“We’re still waiting every day to see what happens,” said Lipsitt.
The Michigan Department of Education has denied any wrongdoing.
Caseloads have doubled since federal cuts, former staff say
The federal Department of Education handles thousands of cases each year. In 2024, it received nearly 23,000 complaints.
Now that 240 staff members at the Office for Civil Rights have been laid off, those who remain are saddled with more than double their usual caseloads, according to former Cleveland attorneys.
Staff working at the regional offices that are still open also will have to learn the idiosyncrasies of state-specific laws. The attorneys who were laid off took with them decades of institutional knowledge, according to former staff.
A federal lawsuit filed on March 13 against the Education Department, Trainor, and McMahon, alleges the agency’s “complaint and investigation processing functions have fallen under attack.”
Two parents and the nonprofit association Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, including two Michigan members, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs allege the department “has abdicated its responsibility to enforce civil rights protections, leaving students who should be able to trust and rely on their government to protect and defend their rights to instead endure discriminatory and unsafe learning environments without recourse.”
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
Michigan families say they have run out of options
Many families feel they have run out of options after years of fighting for their children to receive appropriate education and support.
Lyn Hollister, mother of twins in ninth grade in Tri County Area Schools, filed federal complaints in February and still hasn’t heard anything about their statuses.
Shelbie, Hollister’s daughter who has autism and mild cognitive impairment, is still waiting for the district to modify her curriculum to focus on life and job skills. As she waits, Shelbie is suffering from mental health issues because of the stress to meet grade level standards.
Last week, the district agreed to put Hollister’s other daughter, Makenzie, who has cognitive impairment and severe cerebral palsy, on a track to receive a high school completion certificate instead of a diploma. The change will allow Makenzie to get more thorough transition services after high school, her mother said.
Hollister requested the same for Shelbie but is still fighting for the change.
“When your child comes home on certain days they have struggled and wrap their arms around you crying because they are so overwhelmed that day because of what is put on them, you just break down,” she said. “And your hands are tied.”
A representative for Tri County Area Schools declined to comment on Hollister’s case.
Hollister said she plans on moving her daughters to another school in the fall. They qualify for a Section 105c waiver, which will allow them to attend a school outside of their district.
“We’re hoping in this new district, they can finally have a team to support our children to be the best that they can be,” she said.
King, the Detroit mother, said if she could afford to, she would move to another part of the state in hopes of finding a district that might provide a better outcome for George.
Options like private school wouldn’t work for Rocco, said Binford.
“I worry he would be forgotten about,” she said. “They don’t have the resources or the training to support him in a private school. We really do rely on the public education system.”
In some cases, complaints filed with the federal department can be handled by state or local agencies. That depends on what protections states have covered in their own civil rights laws.
In Michigan, the state education agency’s Office of Special Education enforces compliance with parts of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and state law. The office investigates and mediates state-level complaints. Complaints can also be filed with local intermediate school districts.
The Michigan Department of Civil Rights enforces the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which includes protections from discrimination based on gender, sexuality, religion, race. It also enforces the state’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act.
Binford said since she hasn’t heard anything back from the federal office, she was advised by an advocate to make a mediation appointment with Macomb Intermediate School District.
Another avenue for parents are lawsuits. However, legal cases are costly and timely. The standard of proof in the court system is also higher than in administrative proceedings.
King said after years of fighting for her son, she is left with limited choices.
“I feel hopeless,” she said. “I don’t know where to go from here.”
Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
