According to an Inside Higher Ed article, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) received a record number of discrimination complaints in the last fiscal year. The 18,804 complaints detailed cases of discrimination in both K-12 and higher education institutions.

Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon attributes the rise in complaints to an increasing sense of trust in the OCR, which under the Biden administration has seen a budget increase of $4.5 million. The new administration has also pushed for more transparency surrounding case investigations and resolutions.

For Kenneth Marcus, former Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, the COVID pandemic also played a role in the OCR's growing caseload. Marcus specifically notes that the pandemic's polarizing effect in the U.S. has contributed to the degradation of social norms at colleges and universities.

At the same time, pandemic-related school closures and the switch to online classes have exacerbated accessibility concerns at schools across the nation. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of OCR complaints are related to disability discrimination. As schools struggle to keep up with the growing number of accommodation requests, more students are speaking out.

Discrimination in Higher Education

The OCR opened 890 investigations into cases of discrimination in higher education in 2022. Almost half of these investigations involved complaints of disability discrimination. About one-third involved discrimination under Title IX, a federal law protecting students from sexual discrimination, and one-quarter involved discrimination under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, color, or national origin.

According to the OCR, the Department had resolved only 70 investigations into discrimination at post-secondary institutions by the end of last year. These cases included:

• A group of students at the University of Vermont filed a complaint with OCR detailing allegations of anti-Semitic harassment from a teaching assistant threatening to lower their grades.
• A Florida Gateway Community College student detailed ongoing issues with an online proctoring service that his school mandated he use, even though the software could not accommodate his disabilities.
• A pregnant student from Troy University in Alabama filed a complaint with the OCR, claiming that her school failed to provide pregnancy-related accommodations.

In each of these instances, the office ruled that the schools either violated federal civil rights laws or failed to conduct a proper investigation and would need to revise their policies and training programs.

You Need an Experienced Education Attorney-Advisor

The consequences can be serious if you're a student facing discrimination at school. Not only can you encounter unfair interruption of your studies, but you can also miss out on important academic opportunities. With nationwide experience protecting the rights of students, Attorney Joseph D. Lento and the skilled Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm can help. If you believe your school has infringed your civil rights, call today at 888-535-3686, or contact them online to set up your consultation.