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It鈥檚 been more than a month and a half since a Education Secretary Linda McMahon to put Office for Civil Rights staff back to work. But so far, none of the 276 fired employees are back on the job.

Advocates say the reduction in staff has contributed to a backlog of untouched complaints, leading students to wonder whether their cases have been abandoned.

鈥淭he people who turn to OCR are the students who feel really betrayed by their own institutions or by their own school districts and often feel like they’re at the end of the road,鈥� said Amanda Walsh, deputy director of external affairs for the Victim Rights Law Center, a legal advocacy group that鈥檚 part the case. The Boston OCR office, one of seven shuttered in the downsizing, was handling complaints from the victims of sexual assault they represent. Now, Walsh said, they have no information on the status of those cases. 鈥淲e’ve proactively reached out to OCR for updates and have received no responses.鈥�  

The administration says that because the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the secretary to permanently fire over 1,000 staffers from other divisions in the agency, she should be free to dismiss OCR employees as well. 

The two cases are 鈥渇unctionally identical,鈥� the government鈥檚 lawyers wrote in a to the court. They said that the district court should throw out the June 18 order requiring McMahon to reinstate OCR鈥檚 attorneys, investigators and other support staff.

Attorneys for the Victim Rights Law Center and the two families who sued say their case is significantly different. Their clients 鈥� and those in similar situations nationwide 鈥� have pending complaints that have been left in limbo or dismissed because of the staff reduction. 

One Black student in the suit, identified as T.R., from peers in the Falls City, Nebraska, district. They called him a 鈥渕onkey鈥� and the n-word. A.J. from Birmingham, Michigan, another plaintiff, has a life-threatening dairy allergy. Students poured milk on his lunch and put cheese on his head. Tara Blunt, T.R.鈥檚 mother, withdrew him from school in 2023. A.J.鈥檚 mother, Karen Josefosky, pulled her son out the following year. 

Firing OCR staff 鈥渟talled civil rights investigations across the country and left thousands of students, including plaintiffs, without recourse for discrimination in school,鈥� attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in last week opposing the administration鈥檚 request.聽

The delay in putting OCR staff back to work is just one example of the Trump administration鈥檚 failure to comply with about a third of the court orders issued against it, according to a recent of 337 lawsuits.

Rachel Oglesby, chief of staff at the Education Department, files weekly updates to Judge , with the Massachusetts district court, about the department鈥檚 progress toward reinstating the staff. But her statements list multiple reasons why the department has not acceded to the court鈥檚 wishes. Officials, she wrote, are still calculating whether there鈥檚 sufficient office space and discussing 鈥渢he feasibility鈥� of restoring employees鈥� access to computer systems. In the meantime, the department is paying the staff about $1 million a week while they鈥檙e out of work, she said.聽

One OCR attorney still on the job said the layoffs have made it nearly impossible to address all of the complaints submitted. 

鈥淥ne person now has to do the work of three,鈥� said the attorney, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation. 鈥淭here’s just not enough physical time in the day.鈥�

Joun didn鈥檛 give the department a hard deadline for staff to return to work. He just said McMahon had to 鈥渢ake all steps necessary to facilitate the return to duty鈥� of those terminated and continue to investigate all complaints. 

That choice of words allows the agency to appear to be meeting the court鈥檚 terms, said David Super, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University.

鈥淲hen you use language like 鈥榝acilitate the return,鈥� 鈥� you certainly invite the administration to drag its feet,鈥� he said. 鈥淎fter a week or two, if nothing meaningful is happening, that’s probably the time to consider whether clearer language is needed.鈥�

The department鈥檚 slow progress in getting OCR staff back to work is similar to the strategy it followed in the Supreme Court case brought by blue states and a group of districts and unions. 

On May 22, Joun, the Biden appointee presiding over both cases, temporarily halted the department from firing staff. The U.S. Appeals Court for the First Circuit upheld the ruling two weeks later. The department appealed, asking the Supreme Court to allow the firings to go forward while the case continues in Joun鈥檚 court. 

The never returned to work. Aug. 1 was their official last day.

With an administration unafraid to defy the courts, some legal experts question why judges haven鈥檛 used stronger measures to force compliance. District courts can hold government officials in contempt and enforce penalties, sanctions and even jail time. In 2019, a former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos $100,000 because she wouldn鈥檛 stop collecting loan payments from students defrauded by a for-profit college that went out of business. 

In the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, a held Department of the Interior officials in contempt for not paying Native Americans past royalties on oil, timber and other resources. This year, a District of Columbia circuit court judge to hold Trump in contempt for not returning deportees sent to El Salvador back to the U.S. In July, the men were , their home country.  

But appellate courts rarely uphold lower-court sanctions against administration officials, Nicholas Parrillo, a Yale University law professor, . On Friday, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals against Trump. 

Georgetown鈥檚 Super noted that the current Supreme Court, which has backed much of Trump鈥檚 agenda, has discouraged district judges from coming down hard on the administration.

The justices have 鈥渇ired several shots across the lower courts鈥� bows, suggesting that they should be less forceful in enforcing their orders,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey haven’t made a single sweeping statement; they’ve just nitpicked the cases that have come to them.鈥�

Despite noncompliance, federal agencies traditionally try to keep the courts happy by demonstrating 鈥渟ome steady progress,鈥� Parrillo wrote. 

In her filed Tuesday, Oglesby said a committee met the day before to discuss 鈥渞eintegration activities.鈥� Officials mailed 365 boxes to employees to return their old laptops before the department issues them updated equipment.聽

On , she said there鈥檚 available space for employees in the Dallas regional office. But there鈥檚 not enough room in Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco. She鈥檚 not sure about Chicago; the New York office is under renovation. 

Oglesby鈥檚 rationale doesn鈥檛 satisfy Terri Gonzales, a chief attorney who managed the Dallas office. She doesn鈥檛 understand why the department didn鈥檛 allow the staff to start working from home weeks ago.

鈥淔or approximately a full year during the COVID-19 pandemic, almost the entire staff of the OCR Dallas office worked remotely,鈥� she wrote in . 鈥淭here is no reason why staff members could not do the same now.鈥�

The department, she added, could have taken 鈥渃ommon sense鈥� measures to get the ball rolling, like providing staff with contact information for new supervisors and training them on any new procedures enacted while they鈥檝e been on leave. 

The department did not respond to questions about why OCR staff aren鈥檛 working remotely. 

鈥楥ause for grave concern鈥�

OCR is still under the leadership of Craig Trainor, who worked for the America First Policy Institute, the MAGA think tank McMahon chaired, until Trump appointed him acting assistant secretary. He鈥檚 awaiting confirmation for a post in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But like Kimberly Richey, Trump鈥檚 choice to lead OCR, Trainor鈥檚 nomination is stalled while Congress takes an August break.

Trump last week pressured the Senate to advance dozens of his nominees, but a deal with Democrats before the recess. 

Under Trainor, OCR has received nearly 6,500 complaints since the March mass layoffs and dismissed about 4,500 of them, Oglesby wrote. The office resolved 385 complaints and opened 377 investigations. They include one involving the in California requiring officials to clarify that service dogs are allowed at school. Another focuses on ensuring a , student with ADHD receives extra time on tests and other accommodations spelled out in his disability plan. 

In a third example, the Detroit district to fix an elevator at one of its elementary schools and ensure that no students, parents or staff with disabilities miss out on programs or services that require use of the elevator.

An investigation into complaints over services for students with disabilities in the District of Columbia Public Schools is 鈥渁ctively being investigated,鈥� added the current OCR attorney who asked not to be named.

In the past, the staff would have cleared about 200 complaints a month, Gonzales wrote.

鈥淭he low reported number of substantive resolutions contrasted with the high number of dismissals is a cause for grave concern,鈥� she told the court. 鈥淏ased on my experience, it suggests that OCR is not completing investigations promptly and fairly.鈥�

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