https://www.propublica.org/article/education-department-civil-rights-division-eroded-by-massive-layoffs

With a mass email sharing what it called "difficult news," the U.S. Department of Education has eroded one of its own key duties, abolishing more than half of the offices that investigate civil rights complaints from students and their families. Civil rights complaints in schools and colleges largely have been investigated through a dozen regional outposts across the country. Now there will be five.

The Office for Civil Rights' locations in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco are being shuttered, ProPublica has learned. Offices will remain in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The OCR is one of the federal government's largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, investigating thousands of allegations of discrimination each year. That includes discrimination based on disability, race and gender.

"This is devastating for American education and our students. This will strip students of equitable education, place our most vulnerable at great risk and set back educational success that for many will last their lifetimes," said Katie Dullum, an OCR deputy director who resigned last Friday. "The impact will be felt well beyond this transitional period." The Education Department has not responded to ProPublica's requests for comment.

In all, about 1,300 of the Education Department's approximately 4,000 employees were told Tuesday through the mass emails that they would be laid off and placed on administrative leave starting March 21, with their final day of employment on June 9. The civil rights division had about 550 employees and was among the most heavily affected by Tuesday's layoffs, which with other departures will leave the Education Department at roughly half its size.

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