The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in Philadelphia is one of seven such offices to be shut down nationally as part of the sweeping cutbacks and layoffs being carried out in the department this week, according to a source familiar with details.
The office, which oversees five states including Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Maryland, West Virginia and Delaware, is responsible for the enforcement of laws around discrimination cases based on sex and race, as well as shared ancestry, and those involving disabilities. In recent months, it oversaw probes into local colleges and school districts charged with failing to properly handle complaints about antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel.
It is among seven OCR offices nationwide that are being shuttered, said the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. Others are based in Boston, New York, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Chicago. Five offices will remain open, those in Seattle, the Washington D.C. metro area, Denver, Kansas City, and Atlanta.
The Philadelphia OCR is based in the historic Wanamaker building, which is largely vacant and in foreclosure. The office’s lease already had been targeted for cancellation by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. Employees in the office are to be placed on administrative leave through June and then possibly offered severance or retirement, the source said.
The changes and layoffs come as President Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the education department and dramatically reduce the size of the entire federal workforce. Nearly half the staff of DOE learned Tuesday that they would lose their jobs.
“What they are doing is absolutely unconscionable in terms of the impact it will have on the students in the 750-plus school districts in the five states that Philadelphia has the jurisdiction for, in the 400 colleges and universities in those states and in the 225 charter schools,” said Wendella P. Fox, who had served as director of the Philadelphia office from December 1997 through December 2021, under five U.S. presidents.
Fox said staff members “are absolutely shell-shocked and what they are feeling cannot be stated publicly or printed in a newspaper…. My Philadelphia OCR family knows that I stand with them, and am here to help in any meaningful way that I can.”
She said the OCR is a separate line item in the Congressional budget, not part of the education department budget.
Judith Risch, who left OCR in May after 20 years with the agency and had worked for a time in the Philadelphia office, said there was a large backlog of cases nationally.
“I anticipate that’s going to get worse and the people who are being harmed are the children who those cases are about,” said Risch, who now serves as Title IX & Equity/Access Services Special Advisor for Grand River Solutions, a higher education consulting company. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Fox estimated that there are more than 10,000 complaints pending nationwide, in addition to directed investigations launched as a result of something that happens and compliance reviews, initiated as part of a strategic plan to focus on a certain area.
“Whatever number of offices are closed, realistically speaking, I cannot see a reduced staff in whatever remaining offices that would be open that can handle that,” she said.
The education department did not respond to questions Wednesday about the cuts, how the decision was made to close the Philadelphia office, or what would happen with open cases at local schools. In a press release Tuesday, it said it was cutting 50% of the federal education department’s overall workforce as part of the Trump administration’s effort to minimize the department and the federal role in education to whatever extent possible by law.
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
The federal department, which will be reduced from 4,133 workers to 2,183, said it would continue to provide “all statutory programs” that the agency is responsible for, including “formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students and competitive grantmaking.”
Beth Gellman-Beer, regional director of the Philadelphia office who has worked in the department for 18 years, did not respond to requests for comment, but acknowledged the cuts in a post on Linked In Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s true,” she wrote. “I, along with my entire staff, were terminated last night. I feel blindsided, barely able to catch my breath.
“Hundreds of agreements negotiated through the years on every possible jurisdictional basis. Just since October 7, at least ten agreements resolving complaints of shared ancestry harassment at k-12 schools and universities. All that work, just gone overnight…my heart is shattered into a million pieces.”
Fox said when she started at the office, approximately 60 employees worked there. By the time she left, it was down to about 30 with twice the caseload.
The federal education department also has several other offices in the Wannamaker building; it’s not clear what, if anything, is happening with those offices.
Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center-PA, expressed deep concern over the actions happening in Washington.
Cuts will “certainly mean fewer federal resources for our most underfunded schools and a lack of federal oversight,” Gordon Klehr said. “Federal education funding is targeted to students who are most marginalized, including students impacted by poverty, students with disabilities, English learners, students experiencing homelessness, and students in the foster care and juvenile justice systems.”
About half of OCR’s cases deal with students with disabilities who say they are not receiving proper accommodations, and the majority of those cases are in school districts.
Risch, who had been an attorney adviser for OCR, emphasized that just because the offices are closing doesn’t mean the laws are going away.
“Enforcement may be changing but this doesn’t mean that obligations aren’t there,” she said.
The department earlier this week said in a press release that it had sent letters to 60 universities under investigation for antisemitic discrimination and harassment. Temple, Drexel, Swarthmore, and Rutgers were among the schools receiving letters, according to the department.
How those investigations will be carried out without a Philadelphia office is unclear.
Temple President John A. Fry said in a statement Tuesday it had received the letter warning of potential loss of federal funding if the school is found not to be in compliance. The university last year entered into a resolution agreement with OCR over antisemitism and anti-Palestinian complaints, he said. Drexel University also had entered into an agreement last year to improves its handling of antisemitism complaints.
“As part of the agreement, Temple undertook several commitments to be completed in the next year, all of which are underway,” he said, citing additional training, a survey and internal reviews of the handling and response to prior incidents. “We are on schedule to fulfill our obligations under the agreement and will report to OCR on our progress.”
The university will cooperate with OCR on the new investigation, he said.
In the Central Bucks School District, which has been facing civil rights investigations into alleged antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ discrimination, spokesperson Michael Petitti said Wednesday the district “has received no information about how this development may or may not impact any current OCR investigation at any school district.”
