ProPublica has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, alleging the agency is withholding public records about its enforcement of civil rights protections in schools, according to court documents filed Wednesday in New York.

The news organization submitted four Freedom of Information Act requests last year seeking records about the Education Department’s civil rights investigations, communications, and other work. The department acknowledged receiving the requests but has not provided the requested documents, according to the lawsuit.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has historically investigated discrimination allegations in schools and maintained an online list of open investigations while posting findings from completed inquiries. However, under Education Secretary Linda McMahon, appointed by President Donald Trump, the office “has been decimated and the work of its remaining investigators is largely cloaked in secrecy,” according to the lawsuit.

ProPublica’s requests sought records about civil rights investigations that have been opened or closed, notices sent to institutions under investigation, and previous discrimination findings that have been reversed under the Trump administration. A fourth request sought communications between top Education Department officials and conservative groups that have criticized public schools, according to the filing.

“Actions by the Department of Education have real consequences for millions of students and families,” said Alexandra Perloff-Giles of Davis Wright Tremaine, the law firm representing ProPublica. “The public deserves to understand how executive authority is being exercised so that it can hold government accountable.”

The lawsuit argues that since Trump took office, the OCR’s work has become “significantly more opaque.” The office was once “one of the federal government’s largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” according to court documents.

Under the Trump administration, the OCR’s focus has shifted to investigations involving antisemitism, ending transgender athlete participation in women’s sports, and alleged discrimination against white students, according to the lawsuit. The filing states that complaints about transgender students in sports and bathrooms have been “fast-tracked while cases of racial harassment of Black students last year were ignored.”

The department has undergone significant restructuring under Trump’s leadership. Official employee counts at the OCR dropped from 568 in 2024 to 403 as of December 2025, according to the lawsuit. McMahon closed seven of the 12 regional OCR offices that handled discrimination complaints nationwide.

These changes have created a substantial backlog of cases. When President Joe Biden left office, approximately 12,000 investigations were open, but by December 2025, that number had nearly doubled to 24,000, according to the filing.

The lawsuit emphasizes the broad impact of these policy changes, noting that “approximately 49.6 million students” attend U.S. schools, meaning “changes to the ED and its policies affect millions of families.”

While some documents detailing case resolutions continue to be posted online, some older resolution agreements have been terminated without public disclosure, according to the lawsuit.

Education Department spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment about the lawsuit, and the department has not yet filed a response in court.

The legal action comes as Trump has been working to eliminate the Education Department entirely. The lawsuit states that hundreds of department workers have been laid off as part of broader restructuring efforts.

ProPublica argues that the public interest in accessing these records is “substantial and ongoing” given the widespread impact of education policies on American families and students.