Felicita Piñón, an eighth-grade student from Crowley, Texas, who has cerebral palsy, testified against a school voucher bill at the Texas Capitol in 2025. Her mother, Liz Piñón, had previously filed a complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in 2024, alleging that Felicita’s school failed to accommodate her needs for cheerleading. The complaint cited concerns about discrimination based on disability and race. Although the OCR rejected the complaint in July 2024, Liz Piñón said it still offered her valuable information and a sense of closure. The Office for Civil Rights, created in 1980, is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in schools based on factors like race, disability, and gender. Parents often use the OCR as their final option when local schools do not meet federal standards for students with disabilities. However, recent budget cuts and staff reductions have significantly weakened the OCR’s capacity. Thousands of complaints have been dismissed without investigation, raising concerns about how effectively federal special education laws are being enforced when states fall short. In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Education cut nearly half of its 4,000-person workforce, including 299 out of 575 positions at the OCR, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). After legal challenges, some staff were reinstated, and by November 2025, the OCR had 446 employees, including 384 who had initially been terminated. Despite retaining over 75% of its staff from before the Trump administration, parents reported receiving new contacts for their cases and, in some cases, no follow-up at all. Around the same time, seven of the twelve regional OCR offices across the country permanently closed, including locations in Atlanta, Boston, and Dallas. In June 2026, the Department of Justice was asked to take on a larger role in civil rights investigations. However, many advocates worry that the Justice Department, which has limited experience in education matters, may not be able to effectively protect the rights of students with disabilities. In Texas, the closure of the Dallas OCR office led to changes in how disability advocacy groups operate. Colleen Potts, a supervising attorney with Disability Rights Texas, said her organization stopped receiving confirmation that complaints were received by the OCR. As a result, she instructed her team not to spend time or resources on filing new complaints. Federal laws like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), passed in 1975, ensure that students with disabilities have the right to a free and appropriate public education. The law also requires the federal government to monitor how schools and states implement these rights. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act allows families to file civil rights complaints if they believe their child has been discriminated against. In 2025, only 21 states met federal special education requirements, and many students with disabilities attend schools that lack essential staff such as psychologists and social workers. During the 2023-24 school year, nearly every state reported shortages of special education teachers. Texas, which had set a target to keep special education enrollment at or below 8.5%, was placed on a five-year corrective action plan in 2018 after failing to properly identify and evaluate eligible students. Although Texas met IDEA requirements for the first time in years in 2025, large districts like Houston and Austin had struggled with compliance for several years.