Office for Civil Rights Goes from Silence to Sudden Activity

OCR updated its resolution search twice within about a week, adding letters of findings and resolution agreements with schools in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada and Wyoming

Looks like I’ll be back to checking OCR’s site daily. I wrote about sudden activity on Office for Civil Rights (OCR) site a few days ago. OCR is at it again, posting more letters of finding and resolution agreements—after months of nothing.

Quick Review

Between January and mid-July 2025, OCR failed to post a single disability discrimination resolution within the “Office for Civil Rights Recent Resolution Search” section on its site. For months, parents, advocates, and researchers noted the stagnation. The site listed just eight total investigations for 2025—and none addressed disability discrimination.

That changed in early July. Without fanfare or explanation, OCR updated its public resolution database, jumping from eight to 53 resolution listings, 35 of which address disability discrimination.

Now—just a few days later— the total rose again to 65 investigations, 47 of which focus on disability discrimination.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

OCR once again is publishing findings and resolution agreements.

The Bad

OCR still doesn’t issue press releases for every investigation finding or new resolution and letter upload, nor does the site include a “recently added” filter or any clear marker of what's new. This forces families and advocates into a daily scavenger hunt just to monitor federal enforcement of disability rights.

We also know OCR hasn’t yet published everything from 2025. When those documents are eventually added, their dates will reflect when the agreement was signed—not when it was posted. So a resolution quietly uploaded in September could be dated January and go entirely unnoticed.

The Ugly

We already know of at least one major omission: the January 16, 2025, Letter of Findings against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia, and the formal agreement entered into with the district.

Despite the severity of the violations and the corrective action OCR required, the case has not been posted on OCR’s website—or, to my knowledge, in any public-facing location by the Virginia Department of Education and Fairfax County Public School (FCPS). As of this writing, there is no trace of it in OCR’s public listings.

If OCR does eventually upload the January 16 case—or others like it—there will be no way to know it’s new. Without upload timestamps, press releases, or a “recently added” section, it becomes a guessing game.

Was it always there? Was it just added? There’s no way to tell.

Still No Answers

OCR’s website still includes the same message it has for years:

“The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is providing access to resolution documents reached on or after October 1, 2013. The resolution documents cover aspects of laws OCR enforces. You have access to all currently uploaded documents that meet OCR’s document upload criteria. Additional documents will be posted on a continual basis.”

We still don’t know:

• What qualifies under OCR’s “document upload criteria”?

• Why aren’t all letters and agreements released?

• How many 2025 (and pre-2025) cases are still missing from public view?

• What is the timeline or process for uploads?

Without answers to these basic questions, families and researchers are left in the dark—forced to piece together incomplete records in an already complex system.

What’s New as of July 17, 2025

The following popped up between July 14 and 17, 2025:

Arizona:

• Letter and agreement with Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, entered into July 14, 2025, covering three separate complaints. There are three listings—one for each complaint—but one letter and one agreement covers all three.

Georgia:

• Letter and agreement with Georgia College and State University, entered into July 10, 2025.

North Carolina:

• Letter and agreement with Nash County Public Schools, entered into July 2, 2025

Oregon:

• Letter and agreement with McMinnville School District, entered into July 2, 2025

Colorado:

• Letter and agreement with Poudre School District entered into July 7, 2025; letter and agreement entered into July 16, 2025, with Boulder Valley School District RE-2; and letter and agreement entered into July 16, 2025, with Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8.

Nevada:

• Letter and agreement with University of Nevada entered into July 9, 2025.

Wyoming:

• Letter and agreement with Natrona County School District 1entered into July 10, 2025, and letter and agreement with Wyoming BOCES 5 entered into July 14, 2025

What was New as of July 14, 2025

For anyone keeping an eye on what was already published, in an effort to identify future additions to the site that fall within this timeframe, the below is for you.

Arizona:

• Letter and agreement with Presidio School entered into February 25, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Paradise Valley Unified District entered into March 19, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Basis Prescott Charter School entered into April 14, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Edkey Inc entered into June 11, 2025.

California:

• Letter and agreement with Belmont-Redwood Shores School District entered into February 26, 2025

• Letter and agreement with San Diego State University entered into May 30, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Tehachapi Unified entered into May 30, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Inglewood Unified entered into June 27, 2025.

Colorado:

• Letter and agreement with Mesa Valley School District entered into June 17, 2025.

Florida:

• Letter and agreement with Coolier County School District entered into March 3, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with University of Central Florida entered into April 9, 2025.

Idaho:

• Letter and agreement with Bear Lake County School District 33 entered into June 23, 2025.

Iowa:

• Letter and agreement with Red Oak Community School District entered into March 25, 2025.

Michigan:

• Letter and agreement with Kanawha County School District entered into March 11, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Detroit Public Schools Community District entered into June 24, 2025.

Nevada:

• Letter and agreement with Plymouth-Canton Community Schools entered into April 3, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Clark County SD entered into March 26, 2025.

New Jersey:

• Letter and agreement with Waldick School District entered into May 27, 2025.

New Mexico:

• Two separate letters and agreements with Santa Fe Public Schools entered into May 13, 2025, covering two separate complaints.

• Letter and agreement with Aztec Municipal Schools entered into June 18, 2025.

North Carolina:

• Letter and agreement with College of the Albemarle entered into June 5, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Central Park School for Children entered into June 24, 2025.

Ohio:

• Letter and agreement with Bay Village City School District entered into February 25, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with The Ohio State University entered into April 29, 2025.

Oklahoma:

• Letter and agreement with Hennessey Public Schools entered into March 4, 2025.

Pennsylvania:

• Letter and agreement with Mechanicsburg Area School District entered into February 26, 2025.

Texas:

• Letter and agreement with Richardson ISD entered into February 25, 2025.

Washington:

• Letter and agreement with Pierce College at Puyallup entered into March 13, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Whatcom International High School entered into June 27, 2025.

Washington, D.C.:

• Letter and agreement with Kipp DC Headquarters entered into February 28, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Rocketship Legacy Prep PCS entered into April 28, 2025.

West Virginia:

• Letter and agreement with Kanawha County School District entered into March 11, 2025.

• Letter and agreement with Berkeley County Schools entered into June 5, 2025.

Wyoming:

• Letter and agreement with Lincoln County School District 2 entered into March 19, 2025.