As we previously reported, on Tuesday, June 7, the Trump administration announced that the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) in the US Department of Education would be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, an office within OSERS, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which safeguards the rights of students with disabilities, would be moved to the US Department of Justice. The move of OSERS further dismantles the US Department of Education, which the Trump administration has vowed to close.

Federal agencies enforce Section 504 by ensuring that recipients of federal financial assistance (such as public schools, universities, hospitals, and social service agencies) do not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. Enforcement mechanisms include agency-initiated investigations, compliance reviews, and processing private citizen complaints. Unfortunately, OCR has been effectively dismantled by the current administration. This has been accomplished through a couple of methods. The first method was reducing the number of regional offices of OCR from 12 to 5. According to Education Week, caseloads for the remaining five regional offices surged, causing significant disruption to civil rights investigations and complaint resolutions. Although a federal judge ordered OCR to reinstate laid-off employees, the U.S. Department of Education plans to appeal the ruling. Second, the Trump administration has placed 1/2 of the investigators for OCR on administrative leave. Again, with 1/2 of the investigators no longer at the agency, investigations of school districts for discrimination against students with disabilities have come to a standstill.

Despite the end of OCR as a realistic option for dispute resolution, parents do have options available to them. Usually, the quickest and least adversarial approach is to request a Section 504 meeting. In this setting, parents can ask the school to reconsider services, evaluations, accommodations, or placement. If that route is not successful, school districts have an internal grievance procedure and a designated Section 504 coordinator. A complaint can be filed with the Section 504 coordinator for the district. Another option is, depending on the state, requesting a formal legal proceeding before an impartial hearing officer. Due process hearings are used for disputes over identification, evaluation, placement, or the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE), and parents may be represented by an attorney or advocate. Again, depending on the state, hearing decisions may be appealed to state or federal court.