The Education Department said on Friday that it would no longer investigate schools that remove books from their libraries, emphasizing its new stance by dismissing 11 pending civil rights complaints related to book bans in public schools.
The move, immediately hailed by conservative groups, represents a significant whittling-down of the department’s traditional authority as President Trump’s incoming administration makes rapid strides toward its goal of relinquishing oversight of education to the states.
Reacting to an aggressive wave of book challenges in public schools, particularly to books about sexual and racial identity, the Biden administration in 2023 created a book ban coordinator role intended to monitor what experts called an alarming trend.
That coordinator also had oversight of the department’s response to the challenges, as the Education Department is generally legally required to pursue investigations into complaints that allege civil rights violations.
Under the new Trump administration, that role no longer exists, the Office for Civil Rights announced, and said that it “has rescinded all department guidance issued under the theory that a school district’s removal of age-inappropriate books from its libraries may violate civil rights laws.”
“By dismissing these complaints and eliminating the position and authorities of a so-called ‘book ban coordinator,’ the department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education,” Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement accompanying the announcement.