Education Department recalls fired attorneys amid civil rights complaint backlog

Employees at the U.S. Education Department who were fired in March got an unexpected email on Friday – telling them to return to work.

These federal workers, including many attorneys, investigate family complaints of discrimination in the nation’s schools as part of the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). They were terminated by the Trump administration in a March reduction-in-force, but the courts intervened, temporarily blocking the department from completing their terminations.

That left 299 OCR employees, roughly half of its staff, in legal and professional limbo – because the department elected to place them on paid administrative leave while the legal battle plays out rather than allow them to work. Court records show 52 have since chosen to leave.

On Friday, an unknown number of the remaining 247 staffers received an email from the department. That email, which was shared with NPR by two people who received it, says that, while the Trump administration will continue its legal battle to downsize the department, “utilizing all OCR employees, including those currently on administrative leave, will bolster and refocus efforts on enforcement activities in a way that serves and benefits parents, students, and families.”

Staff were instructed to report to their regional office on Monday, Dec. 15.

In a statement to NPR, Julie Hartman, the department’s press secretary for legal affairs, confirmed that the department “will temporarily bring back OCR staff.”

“The Department will continue to appeal the persistent and unceasing litigation disputes concerning the Reductions in Force,” Hartman wrote, “but in the meantime, it will utilize all employees currently being compensated by American taxpayers.”

The department did not clarify how many staffers it was recalling or why it was recalling them now, after keeping them on paid administrative leave for much of the year.

“By blocking OCR staff from doing their jobs, Department leadership allowed a massive backlog of civil rights complaints to grow, and now expects these same employees to clean up a crisis entirely of the Department’s own making,” said Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, a union that represents many Education Department employees. “Students, families, and schools have paid the price for this chaos.”

The department did not respond to a request to share the current size of OCR’s complaint backlog, but one department source who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the Trump administration, told NPR that OCR now has about 25,000 pending complaints, including roughly 7,000 open investigations.

Gittleman said the administration’s decision to keep these OCR attorneys on paid leave “has already wasted more than $40 million in taxpayer funds— rather than letting them do their jobs.”

NPR could not independently verify that cost.

In October, the administration attempted to fire another 137 OCR staffers, though they were reinstated as part of a deal to end the government shutdown.

In all, just 62 employees at OCR have not received a termination notice at some point this year — about 10% of the office’s January headcount.

Two days before the department notified staff they were being recalled, NPR reported on the impact these OCR cuts have had on students with disabilities and their families.

Maggie Heilman told NPR that she filed a complaint with OCR in 2024, alleging that her daughter, who has Down syndrome, was denied her right to a free, appropriate public education at school. OCR began investigating in October 2024, but it was disrupted repeatedly by the aforementioned staff cuts. Heilman’s case remains one of the roughly 7,000 open investigations.

Of the administration’s decision to try to cut many attorneys who protect students’ civil rights, Heilman said, “it’s telling families with children like [my daughter] that their hurt doesn’t matter.”

Since Trump took office, public data shows that OCR has reached resolution agreements in 73 cases involving alleged disability discrimination. Compare that to 2024, when OCR resolved 390, or 2017, the year Trump took office during his first term, when OCR reached agreements in more than 1,000 such cases.