For Immediate Release

The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL), the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA)  have advanced a sweeping legal effort to force transparency from the Department of Education (Department), submitting a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding the Administration’s transfer of core education responsibilities to other federal agencies. Two additional federal lawsuits were also filed over the Department’s failure to respond to multiple FOIA requests submitted in 2025.

The latest FOIA request, filed jointly today by NCYL and LCCRUL, seeks records related to the Department of Education’s June 16 announcement of interagency agreements to transfer responsibility for investigating education civil rights complaints to the Department of Justice and oversight of special education programs to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Also today, NCYL filed two lawsuits in federal court in response to the Department’s repeated failure to comply with FOIA’s statutory deadlines for responding to public records requests. 

The first lawsuit, filed jointly with COPAA, seeks records about the Office for Civil Rights’ processing of disability discrimination complaints amid growing concerns about staffing reductions and enforcement capacity. The second lawsuit, filed by NCYL, seeks records responsive to four separate FOIA requests concerning the Department’s handling of civil rights complaints, the release of the Civil Rights Data Collection for 2023-24, communications with outside organizations regarding federal education policy and civil rights enforcement, and other matters affecting students’ civil rights.

“Families deserve answers, not silence,” said Johnathan Smith, Managing Director of Education and Federal Strategic Advocacy at NCYL. “Since the start of this Administration, the Department has made wide-ranging decisions affecting the ability of students to go to school free from discrimination and in an environment that ensures equal access to educational opportunity while refusing to answer basic questions about how those decisions will impact children and families. The Freedom of Information Act exists to ensure government accountability.”

“For more than a year, the Department of Education has largely abdicated its mission as a civil rights agency to ensure equal access to education for all students,” said Michael Pillera, Director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The Department has been unavailable and uninterested in protecting the rights of all students, and in particular the rights of Black students and other students of color. As the Department continues its efforts to parcel out its responsibilities, school communities deserve transparency about the effects and the consequences of the Department’s actions.”   

“Students with disabilities deserve an equitable, discrimination-free education. When discrimination based on disability occurs there must be a process to investigate and address it,” said Selene Almazan, Legal Director at COPAA. “Students and families also deserve accountability, which depends entirely on the transparency FOIA guarantees. The Department’s inaction on these requests directly blocks that transparency and this cannot stand.”

The transfer of education civil rights complaints and federal special education programs out of the Department marks a significant shift. For decades, these responsibilities were carried out by the Department because its staff has specialized expertise in education law, disability rights, and school-based civil rights enforcement.

Despite the significance of these changes, the Department has provided little information about how pending civil rights complaints will be handled, whether existing timelines and procedures will remain in place, how staff at receiving agencies will be trained, or what these changes mean for students who depend on federal enforcement of their rights.

The new FOIA request seeks records explaining how the interagency agreements were developed and implemented, what guidance has been provided to agency staff, how pending complaints and investigations will be transferred, and what plans exist to ensure continuity of services and civil rights enforcement as required by federal law. NCYL and the Lawyers’ Committee have requested expedited processing given the urgency facing families as many schools across the country prepare to reopen next month.

The two lawsuits underscore a broader pattern of the Department’s failure to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act. Collectively, the pending requests seek information central to understanding whether and how the federal government is continuing to enforce students’ civil rights during a period of unprecedented restructuring.

“Transparency is not optional,” said Smith, with NCYL. “Students can’t meaningfully exercise their civil rights when the federal government refuses to explain how it’s enforcing them, or even if it will enforce them. We’ll continue using every legal tool available to ensure families receive the information to which they’re entitled under the law.”

Under federal law, the Department must respond to the request for expedited processing within 10 calendar days.

The new FOIA request is available here, the lawsuit filed by NCYL and COPAA is available here, and the lawsuit filed by NCYL is here.

###

The National Center for Youth Law centers youth through research, community collaboration, impact litigation, and policy advocacy that fundamentally transforms our nation’s approach to education, health, immigration, foster care, and youth justice. Our vision is a world in which every child thrives and has a full and fair opportunity to achieve the future they envision for themselves.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. The Lawyers’ Committee implements its mission and objectives by marshaling the pro bono resources of the bar for litigation, public policy, advocacy and other forms of service by lawyers to the cause of civil rights. 

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates is an independent, nonprofit organization of more than 3,500 parents, attorneys, advocates, and related professionals; more than 90% of whom identify as having a disability or are parents or family members of individuals with disabilities. COPAA members are active in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several US territories and work to protect student civil rights and secure excellence in education on behalf of the nearly 9.5 million students with disabilities in America who have qualifying disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. For more information, visit copaa.org.