The Civil Rights Enforcement Landscape Just Shifted. Here’s What It Means.

This week, the Department of Education (ED) announced four new Interagency Agreements (IAAs). IAAs are mechanisms used to transfer functions between federal agencies. The IAAs this week move some civil rights enforcement and training responsibilities from ED to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). These agreements appear to signal DOJ and OCR combining enforcement efforts to create more coordinated, and therefore, more powerful enforcement mechanisms.

Under the four IAAs, ED will expand interagency coordination on disability-related and civil rights functions. DOJ will provide technical assistance to school boards and other governmental entities on desegregation planning and implementation (work previously carried out through ED grant programs) and will also assume certain responsibilities related to student privacy, including training and advisory support. DHHS will take on the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, consolidating federal oversight of disability programs outside ED. In addition, ED will retain overall policy leadership, including rulemaking authority and all functions statutorily assigned to the Secretary of Education.

Each of the ED’s four official fact sheets state that the partnership will not impact students, parents, or families who believe they have experienced discrimination. ED officials described the move as a way to establish a more effective and efficient protocol, noting that OCR investigations will continue and that ED staff will retain final decision-making authority.

You can read the fact sheet for each agreement here:

• Civil Rights Enforcement Partnership (ED + DOJ)
• Student Privacy Protection Partnership (ED + DOJ)
• Training and Advisory Services Partnership (ED + DOJ)
• Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Partnership (ED + HHS)

IAAs are not unusual, but the mechanism, which is an Economy Act IAA, has historically been used for shared services, grants administration and operational support. Both large and small agencies across administrations have used them to share services, collaborate, and ensure efficient service delivery. The current administration has been using them extensively as part of a broader effort to restructure ED, and these agreements follow ten agency partnerships signed over the past year.

While both agencies play an important role in protecting civil rights, institutions have generally viewed OCR as an agency that works directly with schools and colleges to achieve voluntary compliance, whereas the DOJ has been more likely to engage through investigations, negotiated settlements, and federal court actions when significant violations are alleged. As enforcement responsibilities evolve institutions and districts should monitor whether these differing approaches influence enforcement priorities, investigative practices and resolution expectations.

Tuesday Takeaways

The law has not changed.

The announcement itself does not eliminate OCR’s statutory authority or the underlying civil rights laws. Title VI, Title IX, Title VII, Section 504, and the ADA remain in effect. Your obligations to students and employees are exactly what they were last week and remain in force regardless of which federal agency is providing technical assistance or handling parts of the enforcement. Finally, while the statutory obligations remain intact, there are legitimate questions about the structure going forward. At this point, we do not yet know what the final structure will look like such as staffing levels, case processing or whether many functions will remain at ED while DOJ provides support.

We will cover this update and more in our upcoming Back to School webinars for K-12 and higher ed happening on August 5. If you have questions about how this shift affects your compliance program, we’re here to help.