At a Glance
- The Education Department’s civil-rights office has opened fewer than 10 sexual-violence investigations nationwide since mass layoffs last March.
- Nearly 50 new Title IX probes target transgender-student accommodations instead.
- More than 25,000 discrimination cases now sit in backlog.
- Why it matters: Victims and accused students lose a free federal path to accountability, pushing costly lawsuits as the only option.
The federal watchdog that once forced schools to answer for sexual assaults on campus is barely functioning. After President Donald Trump’s administration slashed the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, the unit charged with protecting students from discrimination has all but stopped investigating sexual violence.
From Enforcer to Bystander
Before the layoffs, the office opened dozens of sexual-violence probes each year. Since March, it has opened fewer than 10 nationwide, according to internal data obtained by James O Connor Fields. Staff attorneys now number half their pre-layoff total, and the remaining investigators juggle more than 25,000 pending complaints covering race, sex, and disability bias.
The sharp drop contrasts with a surge in Title IX actions against accommodations for transgender students. The same office has launched nearly 50 such investigations since Trump took office a year ago, citing the 1972 gender-equity law.
A Closed Door for Complainants
Students who once relied on a free federal process must now choose between filing expensive lawsuits or abandoning their claims.
- Victims say schools face no federal pressure to fix botched responses.
- Accused students also lose a neutral forum to clear their names.
- Law firms report the office has become “a dead end.”
“It almost feels like you’re up against the void,” said Katie McKay, a New York lawyer who represents victims. “How are we supposed to hold a school accountable once it has messed up?”
One Student’s Last Resort
A graduate student who filed a 2024 complaint alleges her university suspended-but did not expel-a peer the school found responsible for sexually assaulting her. No investigator has contacted her since the filing. She recently sued the university on her own.
“They have all the power, because there is no large organization holding them accountable,” she said. News Of Philadelphia does not name alleged sexual-assault victims without their consent.
Vanishing Data
The department has released no updated complaint totals for the current year. Staffers told James O Connor Fields that cases pile up faster than they can be sorted, making it impossible to count how many involve sexual violence.
Under President Joe Biden, the office received more than 1,000 sexual-violence or harassment complaints in 2024 and secured 23 voluntary agreements with schools. By comparison, it clinched 58 such agreements in 2018 during Trump’s first term. Since last year’s layoffs, the number stands at zero.
Partial Staff Return
In December, the department announced that dozens of laid-off workers would temporarily return while courts review the legality of their dismissals. Officials still seek to make the cuts permanent even as the lawsuit brought by 20 states and the District of Columbia moves forward.
Title IX Pivot
Trump officials credit themselves with “restoring commonsense safeguards” by reversing Biden-era rules that expanded LGBTQ+ protections. Spokesperson Julie Hartman said the office “is and will continue to safeguard the dignity and safety of our nation’s students,” pointing to new restrictions on transgender access to bathrooms and sports teams.
Lawyers Abandon the Process
Firms representing both victims and accused students say the office no longer delivers timely or meaningful outcomes.
- LLF National Law Firm stopped filing complaints in 2021 and now sues schools directly.
- Washington lawyer Justin Dillon warns clients that even newly opened cases can drag on for years.
History of Federal Pressure
Prior investigations show what’s at stake when the office functions:
Year | Action
—|—
2024 | Pennsylvania district mandated a Title IX coordinator after a girl with a disability was put back on the same bus with a driver who had sexually touched her.
2024 | Montana school ordered policy changes after administrators treated a sexual assault as hazing, giving perpetrators only three-day suspensions.
2024 | University of Notre Dame told to revise its disciplinary process after expelling a student without detailing the allegations or interviewing his witnesses.
Those cases emerged when the office had three times the current staff and a public database tracking active investigations. Most of the 300-plus sexual-assault probes pending before Trump’s second term now sit idle, workers say, as investigators chase easier, quicker cases.
Survivors’ Advocate Sounds Alarm
Laura Dunn, a civil-rights lawyer who helped shape Obama-era campus assault policies, calls the retreat a historic setback.
“All the progress survivors have made by sharing their story is being lost,” said Dunn, now running for Congress as a Democrat in New York. “We are literally losing civil-rights progress in the United States, and it’s pushing us back more than 50 years.”
Key Takeaways
- Sexual-violence investigations have fallen to single digits nationwide.
- Resources have shifted to scrutinizing transgender-student policies.
- Without federal enforcement, students must sue or drop complaints.
- No voluntary agreements to resolve sexual-violence cases have been reached since the layoffs.
