When Schools Fail Black Kids, States Must Step Up
Trump's gutting of the Education Department has left thousands of civil rights complaints in limbo — and families are runn
Imagine sending your child to school every day knowing she'll likely hear the word "slave" or "monkey" hurled at her by classmates — and that no one in power is doing anything about it. That's not a hypothetical. That's the reality for Black families in the Pennridge School District in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. And thanks to the Trump administration's mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education, their school civil rights complaint — filed in 2024 — is sitting in a pile with more than 25,000 others, going nowhere fast.
This is what happens when the federal government walks away from its responsibility to protect students. And it's why states like Pennsylvania are now scrambling to fill the void.
The Pennridge Story: Racial Bullying Left Unchecked
The Pennridge School District is more than 80% white. For years, Black students there have reported being called the N-word, compared to slaves, and subjected to relentless racial harassment — often with little or no response from school administrators.
In November 2023, the Bucks County NAACP, the PairUP Society, and affected families — represented by the Education Law Center-PA and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School — filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). An amended complaint followed in August 2024, documenting that the harassment had not stopped.
What the Complaint Alleged
- Black students were routinely called the N-word, "slave," and "monkey"
- LGBTQ+ students faced threats of violence and were harassed in bathrooms
- The district disbanded its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives
- Books representing diverse experiences were removed from school libraries
- Some students transferred to online learning or left the district entirely to escape the hostile environment
"No child should have to choose between their safety and their education," said Adrienne King, a Pennridge parent, founder of the PairUP Society, and president of the NAACP Bucks County chapter.
King has two daughters in the district. She filed the complaint believing it had the power to make things better. Instead, it became one of thousands sitting in a federal office with little hope of action.
The Federal Safety Net Has a Giant Hole in It
The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights is supposed to be the watchdog that holds schools accountable. It investigates discrimination complaints based on race, sex, disability, and religion. It can even pull federal funding from schools that break the law.
But under the Trump administration, that watchdog has been defanged.
The Numbers Tell a Devastating Story
- The Education Department workforce has been cut nearly in half — from 4,100 employees when Trump took office to roughly 2,000 today, according to AP reporting
- More than 200 workers from the Office for Civil Rights were targeted in mass layoffs
- Seven of the agency's 12 regional civil rights offices were shuttered, including offices in Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago
- The OCR backlog stood at 20,000 cases when Trump took office — it has since grown to more than 25,000
- According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the OCR dismissed roughly 90% of the more than 9,000 new complaints it received from March to September 2025
- Keeping laid-off OCR staff on administrative leave while prohibiting them from working cost taxpayers up to $38 million, the GAO found
Let that sink in: 9 out of 10 new discrimination complaints were thrown out. Not investigated. Not resolved. Dismissed.
What Trump Officials Say
Trump officials have defended the layoffs, arguing the office wasn't operating efficiently even at full staff. They have also brought back some fired employees to help clear the backlog — but former staffers say the remaining workforce simply cannot handle the volume of cases.
Meanwhile, the administration has redirected OCR's focus toward investigating schools that make accommodations for transgender students, arguing those policies discriminate against girls and women.
States Are Stepping Into the Gap
With the federal government stepping back, some states are stepping forward. The response is uneven — but it's growing.
Pennsylvania: A New State Civil Rights Office?
Pennsylvania State Sen. Lindsey Williams, a Democrat, has proposed creating a new state civil rights office modeled after the federal OCR. Her message was blunt: "If the federal government won't stand up for our most vulnerable students, I will."
Her bill faces long odds in the Republican-controlled state Senate. But Williams says she's already heard interest from lawmakers in other states, and she believes it could become a national model.
In the meantime, advocates are pushing for heavier investment in the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which already has the power to investigate school discrimination — but rarely uses it. Currently, only about 5% of its cases involve education. The commission had more than 200 staff in the past; today it has about 100.
"It's incredibly important for students and families to be aware of any other option available to them," said Kristina Moon, a lawyer at the Education Law Center who represents families in the Pennridge complaint.
The commission says it's welcoming complaints that have stalled at the federal level — but officials are honest about the challenge. Pennsylvania alone had more than 300 open federal OCR investigations as of January 2025.
Other States Are Moving Too
- Maryland: A newly proposed bill would give the state's Commission on Civil Rights new power to investigate school discrimination. At a recent hearing, commission officials said they can no longer rely on the federal government. "Offices have been closed, people have been fired, cases are piling up," said Glendora Hughes, the commission's general counsel. "That's why we sought to step in that gap."
- Illinois: Similar proposals have been introduced to expand state-level civil rights enforcement in schools.
- Massachusetts: Advocates are pressing an existing state education office — the Problem Resolution System — to clarify what kinds of discrimination cases it will take on.
- California: A newly created Office of Civil Rights primarily provides anti-discrimination guidance and training to local schools.
The Risk of a Patchwork System
Not everyone sees state-level solutions as a clean fix. Critics warn that pushing civil rights enforcement to the states could create a patchwork of uneven protections — where a Black student in Pennsylvania has more recourse than one in Mississippi or Texas.
There's also a deeper concern: that state-level action gives the Trump administration political cover to retreat even further from its federal civil rights obligations.
One of the federal government's most powerful tools is the ability to pull federal funding from schools that violate civil rights laws. Most state agencies don't have that kind of leverage. Some can mediate disputes or issue legal orders — but that's a far cry from the threat of losing millions in federal dollars.
What This Means for Kids Like Adrienne King's Daughters
Back in Pennridge, Adrienne King is still waiting. Her daughters still hear racial slurs at school. Students still make insensitive comments about their hair. The bullying hasn't stopped.
"I feel as though my girls have normalized a lot of this, but for the sake of survival — middle school is hard. You just want to be like everybody else," King told the Associated Press.
That sentence should stop every one of us cold. A mother watching her children learn to survive racism — not fight it, not report it, but survive it — because the systems designed to protect them have been dismantled.
This is not a partisan talking point. This is a child's childhood.
What You Can Do Right Now
The fight for students' civil rights doesn't end with a federal agency. Here's how you can take action:
- Contact your state legislators — Ask them to support state-level civil rights enforcement for students
- Know your state's options — Find out if your state has a human relations commission or education ombudsman that accepts school discrimination complaints
- Support organizations on the ground — Groups like the Education Law Center and the NAACP are doing this work every day
- Vote in local school board elections — School boards set the tone for how discrimination is handled at the building level
- Share this story — Awareness is the first step toward accountability
The Bottom Line
The federal government built the Office for Civil Rights for a reason: because states, left to their own devices, have a long and documented history of failing marginalized students. Dismantling that office — while dismissing 90% of new complaints — is not efficiency. It's abandonment.
States like Pennsylvania are trying to fill that gap. But a patchwork of state agencies is no substitute for a fully funded, fully staffed federal civil rights office with the power to enforce the law nationwide.
Every child in America deserves to go to school without being called a slave. Every family deserves to know that when they file a complaint, someone is listening.
That's not a left-wing idea. That's a basic American promise — and right now, it's being broken.