In 2025, after roughly half of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) staff were terminated and 7 of 12 regional offices shuttered, the Department of Education reached just 112 resolution agreements — the fewest in at least 12 years. Students in 15 states and Puerto Rico received zero enforceable relief.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights — Recent Resolution Search and Pending Cases Currently Under Investigation databases.
Not a single school was held accountable through a binding resolution agreement for any of these alleged violations in 2025.
Largest share of OCR's caseload. 5,794 pending cases.
2,821 pending cases. Zero resolution agreements for harassment or violence.
3,248 pending cases. Racial harassment enforcement halted.
A school district that had entered into a resolution agreement with OCR to address a racially hostile environment found every email it sent to OCR after January 2025 bouncing back unanswered. The required climate survey was never approved — and never administered.
OCR had helped negotiate a mediation agreement with Detroit Public Schools requiring outside tutoring for a seventh grader who developed memory loss after epileptic seizures. When the district stopped replying — and the regional office handling Michigan was shuttered — the family had nowhere to turn.
The administration replaced a 2024 OCR agreement that documented anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab discrimination — removing those protections without explanation — and substituted an agreement focused on eliminating diversity programs and targeting transgender students.
OCR opened fewer than 10 sexual violence investigations after March 2025. In April 2026, the administration rescinded portions of 6 Title IX resolution agreements, ending federal monitoring of protections that the prior administration had secured.
Every figure below is drawn directly from OCR's public Recent Resolution Search and Pending Cases databases.
OCR can close a case in several ways: dismissal (no full investigation), insufficient evidence after investigation, mediation, administrative enforcement, DOJ referral, or a resolution agreement. Only a resolution agreement is a legally binding, written contract between OCR and the school specifying corrective actions, timelines, and reporting requirements — with OCR-monitored compliance. It is the only outcome that guarantees a student actual, enforceable relief.
This page focuses on resolution agreements specifically. A case that was “resolved” through dismissal is not counted as relief here. From March to September 2025, GAO found that roughly 90% of OCR’s case closures were dismissals — cases were closed, not remedied.
Pending civil rights cases when the second Trump administration began vs. resolution agreements reached in 2025. A glowing dot marks the 25 states + PR served by the 7 OCR regional offices shuttered in March 2025.
Tile grid uses a stylized layout (each state is one square) rather than geographic boundaries. Color reflects the share of that state's pending cases that were closed via a binding resolution agreement in 2025 — not cases that were dismissed or closed without remedy.
Resolution agreements reached per year. 2025 is the lowest output in at least 12 years — on an identical budget and a comparable caseload.
Pending OCR cases as of Jan 14, 2025 vs. resolution agreements reached in 2025. Click any column to sort. Click any row to jump to the map. * marks states served by a regional office closed in March 2025.
| State / Territory | Pending cases | Resolution agreements | % with agreement | Regional office |
|---|