The National Center for Youth Law has introduced an online resource that details how students can be protected from discrimination — a service offered as an antidote to the weakening of federal civil rights enforcement in schools.
“Federal civil rights offices that were dedicated to protecting students and families have been gutted or rolled back,” the new website reads. “As a result of these actions, students and families have been left with limited recourse at the federal level when confronted with discrimination, mistreatment, or harassment.”
The Oakland-based nonprofit legal advocacy organization launched The State of Civil Rights for Students and Schools as a way for parents, advocates and attorneys to find and utilize state and local civil rights laws. The website compiles key education civil rights laws and pathways to address discrimination in every state.
“Students and families deserve clear, usable information about what protections exist in their state, and what steps they can take when a student’s civil rights are violated,” Senior Director of Civil Rights in Education Becky Monroe said in a press release. “This resource is designed to help advocates move quickly, with state-specific information they can use right away.”
The U.S. Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education was created to help guarantee equal access to all students and to protect children from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex, age and disability status. Under the Trump administration, that mission has shifted.
Gutted by mass firings, the agency has not resolved any cases of racial harassment against Black or Latino students nor those involving sexual assault, a Brookings report last month found. Instead, the administration has limited the focus of the office to upending school policies that protect transgender students, a hyperfocus on antisemitism and accusing schools that protect students of color of “reverse racism.”
The new online resource, announced Monday, was created as part of the National Center for Youth Law’s Education Defense Fund. The fund was established in May 2025 in response to the federal government’s recent actions to dismantle civil rights enforcement in schools.
By clicking on each state on an interactive map included in the resource, users can find core state protections and legal frameworks outlining students’ civil rights; relevant agencies and oversight structures; options for responding to civil rights violations; and other state and local resources to aid students dealing with various forms of discrimination in schools.
The website will be regularly updated to reflect current best practice tips and state and local enforcement options, according to the center’s press release.
