The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) said it plans to bring back more than 260 Office for Civil Rights staff that it cut as part of its March reduction in force, returning groups of employees to the civil rights enforcement arm in waves every two weeks September 8 through November 3, 2025. Since March, the USDE has been paying the laid-off OCR employees about $1 million per week to sit idle on administrative leave.
The USDE’s August 19, 2025 update was filed as required by a federal judge’s order in Victim Rights Law Center v. U.S. Department of Education directing that the USDE be restored to “the status quo” so it can “carry out its statutory functions.”
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