U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released the new guidance document Civil Rights Protections Against Retaliation.

The document “explains the key elements of retaliation, outlines how OCR assesses retaliation claims, and provides examples that, depending on the facts and circumstances, could raise concerns of unlawful retaliation.”

Although the examples are hypothetical and address a wide variety of situations—and don’t always specifically state “special education” and/or “disability”—many of the examples could easily be applied to special education-related retaliation.

Examples include the following:

Example 1: After a student’s guardian complained to school administrators that the school discriminated against the student based on sex in how it disciplined the student for violating the code of conduct, an administrator threatened to reclassify the infraction as a more serious offense.

Example 2: The day after a university student expressed concerns of discrimination on the basis of race in grading by his instructor, the instructor filed two academic integrity reports against him—each relating to assignments that had been reviewed and graded by the instructor before the student expressed his concerns.

Example 3: A principal instituted a new dress code policy that prohibited girls from dressing “provocatively.” In response, several students complained to the school that the dress code discriminated against girls. The principal then threatened expulsion of the students who complained and limited their access to school activities and extracurricular programming.

Example 4: After a community college student filed an internal complaint about the college’s failure to provide academic adjustments for the student’s disability in a course, the professor and the department chair stopped communicating with the student entirely, including not responding to the student’s questions about the final exam, and an attorney for the college informed the student that there are consequences for filing complaints.

Example 5: After a parent filed repeated complaints with her child’s school alleging that her child experienced racial harassment at school and requested that her child be transferred to another school in the school district to avoid the harassment, the school principal requested that Child Protective Services visit the student’s house to question the parent.

Example 6: After a graduate student submitted a university complaint via email alleging that a professor had sexually harassed her, the university disabled the student’s email account.

Example 7: After a school district received notice that a parent filed a complaint with the state’s department of education alleging the school’s failure to implement the student’s Section 504 plan at a competitive district magnet school, the district disenrolled the student from the magnet school and prohibited the student from reenrolling.

Example 8: After a parent raised concerns about whether her child received appropriate English language services and said that her child’s teacher did not care about students who are English learners, the school stopped providing English language services to her child and told the parent to return to her country of origin to seek a different educational experience for her child.

Example 9: After a parent filed an OCR complaint alleging disability discrimination against her child, and subsequently sent an email to the school expressing concerns with her child not receiving disability related services, the superintendent informed the parent he would not tolerate her questioning decisions made by his staff and canceled previously scheduled Section 504 meetings with the parent.

Example 10: A school administrator initially informed a parent that their child would receive a verbal warning for alleged misconduct during school, but after the parent raised concerns of racial harassment relating to use of racial epithets by a teacher, the school administrator increased the student’s punishment to a multiple-day suspension.

Example 11: After a group of parents advocated for students with disabilities, a school district’s advisory board for issues involving special education amended its bylaws to prevent individuals who file complaints against the district from occupying positions on the board.

Example 12: After OCR opened an investigation of a Title IX complaint filed by a tennis coach alleging that female athletes are given unequal practice and game schedules, equipment, locker rooms, and practice facilities, the school stopped responding to the coach’s emails and cancelled all planned meetings with the coach.

Example 13: A Palestinian law student reported to the academic dean that the law school has engaged in anti-Palestinian discrimination by cancelling an event supporting Palestinians and removing flyers supporting Palestinians posted around campus, while allowing other similar events and flyers. Two days later, the academic dean told the student that “there could be consequences” if she did not “keep her head down.” The next day, the academic dean notified the law student that due to her “participating in disruptive campus activities,” the university will hold a disciplinary hearing to decide whether to rescind her tuition scholarship.

Example 14: A Jewish high school student sent several emails to the school's principal complaining that he observed his classmates drawing swastikas in the bathroom. After the principal spoke to the classmates, they started following the Jewish student around school and shoving him in the hallways, using antisemitic slurs, and commenting that he and his “Israeli relatives should stop terrorizing Gazans.” The student again emailed the principal about the shoving and comments. The principal took no action to address the conduct of the classmates, which continued for the remainder of the school year.

Example 15: Following a meeting with the district’s special education director where several Black parents voiced concern that their advocacy for students with disabilities was met with repeated inaction by the district, as compared with a robust district response to address and resolve similar concerns raised by white parents, the district notified the Black parents that they would not be welcome on school premises for the remainder of the school year due to the “disruption” they caused at the meeting