The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights received a record number of complaints three years in a row under former president Joe Biden’s administration, hitting an all-time high of 22,687 in 2024.
Overall, there was a 64% increase in K12 and higher ed complaints lodged with the agency, also known as OCR, during the Biden years compared to Trump’s first term.
These complaints about discrimination and other civil rights issues in education are skyrocketing even as the incoming Trump Administration has suggested dismantling key functions of the Department of Education—such as the OCR—or eliminating the agency.
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“The nation witnessed a proliferation of hate perpetrated in schools, new school discrimination challenges raised in a pandemic context, as well as changes in longstanding civil rights law as interpreted in courts, rendering OCR’s work increasingly complex,” the office said in “Protecting Civil Rights” report for 2021-25.
However, the office also highlighted its performance in producing a record number of policy resources and almost breaking its record for resolving complaints. Over the last four years, OCR has shared guidance on artificial intelligence, the rights of English learners with disabilities and student discipline.
It also weighed in on sex discrimination and transgender students’ access to athletics. Late last year, however, a court blocked the Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX protections to LGBTQ students. And on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order recognizing only two genders—male and female—under new U.S. policy.
The office also touted resolving the second-, third-, and fourth-highest number of cases during fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024.
“OCR did not just wait for complaints to come in,” the report notes. “OCR also initiated more compliance reviews, which proactively address OCR’s concerns regarding civil rights satisfaction in school communities where a complaint has not yet been filed.”
