By Eve Hill
Last week, the Trump administration took a massive slash at the Department of Education’s staff, cutting nearly 50% of all staff, shuttering 7 out of 12 civil rights offices and gutting the Digital Access Team. The effects of these cuts aren’t limited to those who were fired, or to bureaucratic processes. They spell trouble for the future, directly threatening the rights and futures of millions of students and job seekers with disabilities.
What’s at Stake?
While the Trump administration initially spoke about reassigning the Department’s responsibilities to other agencies, there have been no such transitions. 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.
But with the DOE staff being slashed, there simply aren’t enough people to handle these responsibilities and the Department is unlikely to fulfill these duties, which are essential to many.
A Crisis for Civil Rights
Every year, the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) receives nearly 23,000 discrimination complaints, with around 35% of them involving disability discrimination or failure to provide proper special education services. This influx was hard enough for OCR to handle before these cuts, and it will only get worse. Previously, the office resolved about 16,000 cases annually, still leaving an estimated 7,000 unsolved. But now, with these massive cuts and only 5 offices remaining, that number is expected to drop to just 7,000 resolutions, leaving 16,000 on the table unresolved yearly.
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, with no federal oversight keeping them in check.
No Safety Net
Private education attorneys, like those at Brown Goldstein & Levy, unfortunately 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, which ruled that private lawsuits cannot even recover damages for the emotional distress, students with disabilities often cannot recover damages for discrimination.
Without the weight of federal oversight and consequences for non-compliance, 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, but that team has now been cut by more than half—right when its work is needed the most.
Even with the new ADA regulations that require public schools, colleges, and universities to make their websites and apps accessible within the next two to three years, the probability of these regulations being enforced is highly unlikely, due to the drastic staff reductions that are bound to make follow-through nearly impossible .
The Future of Vocational Rehabilitation at Risk
These cuts leave more at risk than just education; they also threaten employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Another key function of the Department of Education is its responsibility to provide funding for vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs—crucial services that help individuals with disabilities both find and maintain employment. The federal government covers 78.7% of VR funding, and it’s up to the Department to ensure states use this money effectively.
Yet with no oversight, the risk of states neglecting their responsibilities and pushing more people with disabilities into sheltered, subminimum-wage jobs, rather than meaningful employment opportunities, is real and troubling.
The Bottom Line
The weight of these devastating cuts go beyond their impact on budgets and bureaucracy. These cuts have real, dangerous consequences for students and workers with disabilities, and their right to civil rights protections, access to education, and meaningful pathways to employment.
The fight isn’t over, though. Congress holds the power to intervene, and we must demand they use it. We need to urge lawmakers to use their power to 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 is one of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers, known especially for her work with clients with disabilities and LGBTQ+ clients. She has been recognized by Law360 as one of just 12 “Titans of the Plaintiffs’ Bar” for 2023, as well as by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America (2022, 2023, and 2024). Her wide-ranging experience complements Brown Goldstein & Levy’s decades of dedication to high-impact disability rights cases and its advocacy on behalf of individuals with disabilities and their families. Eve also leads Inclusivity, BGL’s Strategic Consulting Group, which works with organizations to promote the education, engagement, and employment of people with disabilities. Learn more about Eve here.
ABOUT BROWN GOLDSTEIN & LEVY
Founded in 1982, Brown Goldstein & Levy is a law firm based in Baltimore, Maryland, with an office in Washington, D.C. The firm is nationally recognized in a wide variety of practice areas, including complex civil and commercial litigation, civil rights, health care, family law, and criminal defense. Above all else, Brown Goldstein & Levy is a client-centered law firm that brings decades of experience and passionate, effective advocacy to your fight for justice.
