Between January 18 and January 23, 2025, over 900 pages of content were removed from U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) site. The content removed focuses on topics such as Office for Civil Rights (OCR) findings and new guidance documents. Examples include the following:

• The press release titled “Office for Civil Rights Reaches Resolution Agreement with Nation's Second Largest School District, Los Angeles Unified, to Meet Needs of Students with Disabilities during COVID-19 Pandemic” was removed from the site. However it remains viewable via Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
  • original page
  • Wayback Machine page
• The press release titled “U.S. Department of Education Releases "COVID-19 Handbook, Volume 2: Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students' Needs"” was removed from the site. However, it remains viewable via Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
  • original page
  • Wayback Machine page

In addition, content on existing pages was changed. For example, on or about January 22, 2025, “gender identity or transgender status” was removed from the list of discrimination OCR has the authority to investigate. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine provides a view of the page as of January 18, 2025, before the content was removed.

Its Presidential

The practice of removing content isn’t isolated to President Trump’s administration. According to the archived pages on Wayback Machine, removing content seems to be a presidential practice.

President Obama

January 20, 2009, the day President Obama entered office, there was one press release listed. It was issued that day and stated the following:

“Press releases prior to January 20, 2009 are at http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/archive/index.html.”

However, the link actually goes to the following Internet Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20100601160118/http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/archive/index.html A random sampling of the press releases archived indicate the links are not archived on USDOE’s current site. They have to be viewed through Wayback Machine.

President Trump

January 20, 2017, President Trump entered office. The day before, January 19, 2020, hundreds of press releases from the Obama administration remained online. By January 24, 2017, Wayback Machine shows the press releases from Obama’s prior 8 years had been removed and there was a generic message on the press release page stating:

Press Releases

Please watch for updated information.

Archive of press releases from previous administrations

President Biden

January 20, 2021, President Biden entered office. A few days before, January 16, 2021, hundreds of press releases from Trump’s administration remained online. By January 21, 2021, there was just one release. There was no listing of an archive to access previous releases.

President Trump

January 20, 2025, President Trump entered office for the second time. January 18, 2025, USDOE’s press release page contained listings for 977 press releases for a period of January 2021 to January 16, 2025. They remain available via Wayback Machine. By January 24, 2025, there were just two releases. There was no listing of an archive to access previous releases.

Making it Harder for Families and Educators

The removal and changing of content compound an already difficult situation.

Over the last year, USDOE updated its site with a new look and organization changes. These updates made an already difficult site harder to navigate. For example, USDOE’s differentiated monitoring and support (DMS) program is implemented by USDOE's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). If you visited OSEP’s monitoring page today, you’d find a link to a listing of DMS-related findings, status letters, and other information. It would be listed under the Laws and Policy/Civil Rights Laws/Disability Discrimination portion of the site.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think that was it. You wouldn’t know there used to be a page with more extensive information for both open and closed reports/investigations. You wouldn’t know to dig more because that information is in a different place and is listed under a different portion of the site (Grants and Programs/Formula Grants/Formula Grants For Special Populations/Special Education—Grants To States (ALN: 84.027)). For some reason, USDOE made the decision to list the same information in at least two different manners and on at least two different pages.

USDOE’s updates over the past year and the removal of, and changes to, hundreds of pages over just the last week have left families and educators with more broken links and headaches trying to find information we know exists (or used to exist)—and trying to understand changes in items such as OCR's authority to investigate different issues.

The press release section was a go-to place to learn about changes and find guidance and investigation findings when traditional searches proved unsuccessful.

Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine archives so much of this information, but it doesn’t catch everything. Special Education Action will continue downloading documents from DOE and other sources to help ensure they remain available to parents and educators throughout changes to USDOE’s site. Unfortunately, Special Education Action and others have bad links themselves, now, simply because the choice was made to link USDOE pages that now no longer exist. Please consider archiving important information yourself, so knowledge of past actions continues to exist.

Knowledge is power. Providing access to valuable information ensures we’re all able to make informed decisions and take actions in the interest of children in need.