Harrisburg, Pa. − October 21, 2025 − Today, Senator Lindsey M. Williams (D-Allegheny), Minority Chair of the Senate Education Committee, announced that she will introduce legislation to create an Office of Civil Rights within the Pennsylvania Department of Education. This legislation will authorize the state to investigate and enforce students’ federal civil rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other federal education laws. Senator Williams issues the following statement along with her co-sponsorship memo:
“In order to protect their right to public education, students and parents need a real place to go when they are being discriminated against or harassed. Instead, the federal government has gutted the Department of Education and shuttered the Pennsylvania Office of Civil Rights. This means if a student in Pennsylvania files a complaint about not receiving the resources they are legally entitled to, it would be handled by an office in Atlanta, if investigated at all.
Eliminating the enforcement of students’ rights is part of the plan to defund, dismantle, and destroy public education being carried out by the Trump Administration. According to ProPublica, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO turned Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has brought on at least 20 political appointees from ultraconservative think tanks and advocacy groups “eager to de-emphasize public schools” and push students into private and religious schools, neither of which are required to educate students with disabilities.
Our students and parents are running out of places to turn for help. My legislation will allow Pennsylvania to do what the federal government refuses to do and investigate and enforce students’ federal civil rights to education.
If the Federal government won’t stand up for our most vulnerable students, I will.”
###