One of seven such offices, according to a source with knowledge of the facts, has been shut down nationwide as part of the district’s extensive cuts and layoffs taking place this week is the U.S. Education Department Office for Civil Rights in Philadelphia, according to a source with knowledge of the information.
The company, which includes five states, including Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Maryland, West Virginia, and Delaware, is in charge of enforcing laws governing cases involving racial and racial bias, as well as those involving shared heritage, and those involving impairments. In recent months, it has overseen investigations into neighborhood universities and school districts that have been accused of failing to properly handle antisemitism in the wake of Hamas ‘ assault on Israel in October 2023.
According to the source, who asked not to be identified because of fear of retribution, it is one of seven Iris locations nationwide that are closing. Boston, New York, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Chicago are the other cities where employees are based. Seattle, Denver, Kansas City, and Atlanta may be the only offices that will be open.
The Wanamaker building,  , which is mostly vacant and in foreclosure, serves as the Philadelphia OCR’s headquarters. The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Effectiveness had already targeted for cancellation of the company’s lease, which is now dated. Employees at the office will be given operational keep up until June, according to the source, and then may be offered severance or retirement.
President Donald Trump has vowed to abolish the education ministry and significantly reduce the size of the entire national labor as a result of the changes and cuts. Almost half the DOE team members learned on Tuesday that they would lose their jobs.
Wendella P. Fox, who had served as director of the Philadelphia business from December 1997 through December 2021, under five U.S. leaders, said,” What they are doing is absolutely unconscionable in terms of the effect it will have on the individuals in the 750+ school districts in the five says that Philadelphia has the authority for, in the 400 colleges and universities in those says, and in the 225 contract schools.”
Fox claimed that employees are “absolutely shell-shocked and what they are feeling cannot be stated publicly or printed in a newspaper.” My Philadelphia OCR family is aware of this and is willing to assist them in any way that is necessary.
She claimed that the OCR is a separate line item from the budget for the education department and not a separate line item in the Congressional budget.
There was a significant backlog of cases nationwide, according to Judith Risch, who left OCR in May after 20 years with the agency and previously worked in the Philadelphia office.
Risch, who currently serves as Grand River Solutions, a higher education consulting firm, said,” I anticipate that’s going to get worse and the people who are being harmed are the children who are affected by those cases are about.” Justice is delayed, according to the saying.
In addition to directed investigations launched as a result of something happening and compliance reviews launched as part of a strategic plan to concentrate on a particular area, according to Fox, there are more than 10,000 complaints pending nationwide.
I can’t, realistically speaking, see a reduced staff in whatever remaining offices that would be open that can handle that,” she said.” Whatever number of offices are closed, I can’t see a reduced staff in whatever remaining offices that would be open that can handle that,” she said.
On Wednesday, the education department did not respond to inquiries about the proposed budget cuts, how the Philadelphia office was decided to close, or what would happen to open cases at neighborhood schools. As part of the Trump administration’s effort to minimize the department and the federal role in education to the fullest extent possible by law, it announced in a press release on Tuesday that it was cutting 50 % of the federal education department’s overall workforce.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement that the Department of Education’s decision to focus on efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.
The federal agency, which will be cut from 4, 133 to 2, 183 employees, announced that it would continue to provide” all statutory programs” that it is in charge of, including “formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.”
Beth Gellman-Beer, the regional director of the Philadelphia office, who has spent 18 years in the department, did not respond to requests for comment, but acknowledged the changes in a post on Linked , In , on Wednesday afternoon.
” It’s true”, she wrote. ” I was fired last night, along with my entire staff. I’m unable to breathe because I’m completely blindsided.
” Hundreds of agreements negotiated over the years on every conceivable jurisdictional basis. At least ten agreements have been reached resolving complaints of shared ancestry harassment in k-12 schools and universities as of October 7. All that hard work has been lost in the wake of this …my heart has been shattered into a million pieces.
Fox claimed that there were approximately 60 employees there when she first started out. By the time she left, the caseload was twice as large as it was 30 by then.
It’s unclear what, if anything, is happening with the offices that the federal education department has in the Wannamaker building.
Executive director of the Education Law Center-PA, Deborah Gordon Klehr, expressed deep concern about the actions taking place in Washington.
Cuttings “definitely mean fewer federal resources for our most underfunded schools and a lack of federal oversight,” according to Gordon Klehr. Students in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, as well as students who are most vulnerable, are among the most underrepresented groups in federal education funding.
About half of OCR’s cases involve students who have disabilities and claim that they are not receiving appropriate accommodations, and the majority of those cases are in school districts.
Risch, who previously worked for OCR as an attorney adviser, made a point that the laws are still in place because they are closing.
She said,” Even though enforcement may be changing, this doesn’t mean obligations aren’t there.”
The department announced earlier this week in a press release that it had sent letters to 60 universities that were the subject of harassment and antisemitic discrimination. According to the department, the departments attracted letters from Temple, Drexel, Swarthmore, and Rutgers.
Without a Philadelphia office, how those investigations will be conducted is a secret.
If the school is found to be in violation, Temple President John A. Fry said in a statement on Tuesday that it had received the letter warning of possible loss of federal funding. He claimed that the university last year and last year, it signed a resolution and last year, reached an agreement with OCR regarding antisemitism and anti-Palestinian complaints. Drexel University, as well, had last year entered into an agreement to improve its handling of antisemitism complaints.
According to him,” Tempel undertook a number of commitments to be completed in the next year, all of which are currently being completed,” he said, citing additional training, a survey, and internal reviews of the handling and response to previous incidents. We will report to OCR about our progress and are on time to fulfill our obligations under the agreement.
He said the university will work with OCR on the new investigation.
According to spokesperson Michael Petitti, the Central Bucks School District has received no information about how this development may or may not have an impact on any current OCR investigation at any school district. The district has been subject to civil rights investigations.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2025.
distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
