Office for Civil Rights

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Education that is primarily focused on enforcing civil rights laws prohibiting schools from engaging in discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or membership in patriotic youth organizations. Mission OCR is one of the largest federal civil rights agencies in the United States, with a staff of approximately 560 attorneys, investigators, and other staff. The agency can be found in twelve regional offices and in its Washington, D.C. headquarters. The Office for Civil Rights is responsible for ensuring compliance by schools that are public entities or recipients of federal education funds with several federal civil rights laws, including: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (in , 101), Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 (in 34 C.F.R. 106), Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (in ), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (in 34 C.F.R. 104, 105), the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act (in 34 C.F.R. 108), and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (in 34 C.F.R. 110). In the case of school bullying school districts may violate these civil rights statutes and the Department of Education's implementing regulations when peer harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability is sufficiently serious that it creates a hostile environment and such harassment is encouraged, tolerated, not adequately addressed, or ignored by school employees. Under these federal civil rights laws and regulations, students are protected from harassment by school employees, other students, and third parties.