A federal investigator who examines civil rights complaints against Alabama schools is the latest target of Trump administration cuts – one of a series of federal and state actions that could leave families with few options.
Victoria DeLano is one of thousands of federal probationary employees fired in recent days by the new Department of Government Efficiency team. At the time of her firing, she said she was the only Office of Civil Rights investigator based in Alabama. Her role, advocates and parents say, was crucial for families who believe local schools haven’t been handling students’ disabilities fairly.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights did not respond to a request for comment.
“There’s no accountability on the local level. There’s no accountability on the state level, because the state’s not going to get involved. And then there’s limited federal oversight of things,” said Laura Johnson, a Vestavia mom who has spent months fighting for fair treatment of her daughter, who has a disability.
“If OCR is not there, where does that leave our kids who have disabilities?”
DeLano took a job with the office in December and was terminated last week, she told AL.com in a recent interview. The office is tasked with mediating and investigating complaints about discrimination and retaliation in schools. The OCR had about 588 full-time employees in FY24, according to its latest annual report.
“I’m really horrified, because I’ve seen the lack of oversight we have in our state,” she said.
DeLano was a probationary employee who said she had hopes of improving services for Alabama families in her new role. She is a member of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252 union.
On Feb. 12, DeLano received an email from her union urging probationary employees to check if they had been terminated. That evening, DeLano said she wasn’t able to get on her work computer, and after checking with her supervisor, she was told by leadership that she had been fired. She said she was not issued any written notice of her termination.
According to the latest federal data, released in May 2024, two OCR attorneys were located in Alabama. By the time she took the job, DeLano said she didn’t know of any other civil rights investigators stationed in the state.
A longtime disability rights advocate, DeLano previously worked with the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, the state’s disability watchdog group.
The organization was under federal review last summer after officials received a number of complaints about the group. A Dec. 17, 2024 report found that while staff were experienced and committed to their work, reviewers had “significant concerns” about compliance with grant requirements and cited high staff turnover, communication issues and unclear roles and expectations within the agency.
ADAP Executive Director Shannon Shelley-Tremblay said the organization is working to address concerns and expand on its strengths. She said staff remain committed to serving people living with disabilities in the state with the organization’s limited resources.
“This review process, along with the continuous feedback we seek from those we serve and our partners across the state, helps us improve our work and fulfill our mission,” she said.
DeLano said she is worried about who, at the federal level, will be able to step in while ADAP works to address its struggles.
“I’m horrified now that not only is the state-level oversight non-functional, but as the one person with a duty station here in Alabama who has my pulse on what is happening here and has the connection and the interest of being a citizen of the state to protect our students, now I’ve been terminated from the Office for Civil Rights,” DeLano said.
According to the Office for Civil Rights’ website, five of seven key staff positions at the OCR’s national headquarters are currently vacant. In the past week, several news outlets have reported that staffers were instructed to halt investigations after President Donald Trump took office.
DeLano, who reported to the department’s Atlanta office, added that the regional hub is “woefully understaffed.” Currently, about 60 staffers serve four states across the southeast, she said. She said one of the only two people doing intake in Atlanta was also fired.
Advocates worry the shakeups, along with other attempts to change disability laws and procedures at the federal and state level, could impact some of Alabama’s most vulnerable children.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is part of a group of 17 states that are part of a lawsuit that could repeal Section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, which provides some protections and accommodations for certain people with disabilities. State lawmakers also have recently considered changes to the state’s special education complaint process, which advocates feared would hamper due process rights.
“The consequences could be dire,” said special education attorney James Gallini, who noted that Section 504, which is upheld by the Office for Civil Rights, extends into the medical community and requires schools to provide certain accommodations for students with disabilities. “It would open up the door to where they could potentially discriminate.”
‘No accountability’
The Office for Civil Rights is a law enforcement agency, but DeLano said the office’s main goal is to mediate between school districts and families and lend support.
The department has resolved 121 cases in Alabama since 2012, according to its website. As a result, some local school districts and colleges have agreed to enforce stronger anti-harassment policies, improve services for students with disabilities and make facilities safer.
But that process can be painfully slow. As many as 285 cases in Alabama are still under federal investigation, some of which have been open for more than a decade.
DeLano said in a text she had been assigned seven cases before the Trump administration put a halt on the work. She said workers had been told to focus on disability cases rather than those involving race, gender, national origin, restraint or seclusion.
“We expect those to sit for a long time until there is guidance,” DeLano said.
Yet for many families, filing a federal complaint is one of the only options for recourse if they aren’t able to reach a resolution with their local district and can’t get any other legal help.
Nikki Carter has been waiting for years for the office to investigate a discrimination and retaliation complaint against Demopolis City Schools. After an incident with a school employee in 2022, district officials took what experts called a “harsh” and “uncommon” step to ban her from local schools and board meetings.
For over two years, the mother of three was unable to attend her children’s school events, deliver medicine or pick them up from class during dangerous weather.
Carter filed a complaint with the OCR on Sept. 23, 2022, claiming that she believed the district’s actions were in retaliation for her advocacy work in the area. For several years, she has been helping families get accommodations for students with disabilities and holding workshops to educate them on their rights.
Emails reviewed by AL.com show that – while officials eventually lifted the orders against her – OCR staff had gone weeks at a time without communicating, and failed to inform Carter of key decisions affecting her case.
“The Trump administration’s rollback of civil rights protections and due process safeguards has made it nearly impossible for families like mine to seek justice through the Office for Civil Rights or the due process system,” she said. “These systemic failures, now exacerbated by weakened federal oversight, mean that my case—and countless others—will continue to be stalled, dismissed, or retaliated against, ensuring that those in power remain unchecked while the most vulnerable are denied their rights.”
Laura Johnson’s daughter has a disability that sometimes causes her to run away, or “elope.” In 2023, she was alerted to a video that had made its way through the school: officials were laughing at surveillance footage of her child running away.
Johnson was told by the district that they’d investigate the matter, but according to AL.com reporting, the system had used its own lawyer and decided not to take any further actions. Johnson eventually had to seek out a private attorney because state-level agencies wouldn’t take action.
“All the options that I had, all of them essentially failed,” she said.
DeLano said things were looking up at the department when she joined just a few months ago; the Atlanta office had new leadership and her role would allow her to devote more energy to Alabama families. Now, she is worried that there is no longer anyone in her office with the same connections, and who knows the state’s legal and educational landscape.
She plans to fight her termination.
“I do this work because the kids in the Black Belt, some who don’t have running water at home, their hope is in education,” she said. “I do this for the kids who reside at Children’s Hospital because they’re so sick. They still have a right to an education because education is the hope for a better future. And I don’t know what’s next.”
