OCR Complaints Show Pandemic’s Effects

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has ramped up investigations in the last year as more individuals and organizations have filed complaints about disability, sex or pregnancy discrimination; campus antisemitism; and programs or scholarships available to only one gender or minority group, among other allegations. The office received 18,804 complaints—a record—during the last fiscal year, from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022, about discrimination in K-12 and higher education, according to data provided by the Education Department.