OCR’s principal activity is the resolution of discrimination complaints. In analyzing how these 13 cases were investigated and resolved, we found that OCR generally followed its established policies and procedures. During this period, OCR resolved complaints and completed compliance reviews in less than 180 days on average. For compliance reviews, only cases involving class actions (cases affecting groups of students) and multiple title VI issues (one complaint alleging multiple issues, namely race and national origin) took more time, on average, to complete than Asian-American cases. At the same time, Asian-Americans filed a higher percentage of complaints involving admissions issues than other minority groups; these complaints resulted in benefits to the complainant or changes by the postsecondary schools in a higher percentage of cases than for other minority groups. (Of the 28, only 2 were administrative closures—1 Hispanic case and 1 class action case.) OCR Has Implemented Changes to Improve Operations

During fiscal years 1994 and 1995, OCR implemented several administrative changes to (1) improve its operations overall and (2) revise the planning and conduct of complaint investigations and compliance reviews as well as the documentation required in the official files. It is too soon, however, to determine whether the changes implemented and planned will significantly improve the timeliness, documentation, and quality of OCR’s operations over the long term. Plans to Improve Use of Staff

OCR has developed plans to redeploy staff to improve productivity. She also asked us to qualify parts of our report to show that OCR cases involving Asian-Americans did not always take the most time to resolve or complete and to highlight that generally for Asian-American cases, OCR found more violations which led to remedial action by postsecondary schools and benefits to the complainants. To determine the timeliness and outcomes of OCR’s complaint investigations and compliance reviews for Asian-Americans as compared with other minority groups, we obtained data tapes and printed reports from OCR covering fiscal years 1988 through 1995. We also provide information on our review of the other cases that were administratively closed and whether OCR followed its policies and procedures with regard to time frames. OCR exceeded its established time frames for this case. 3. 7.) 5. 6. 7. 3.) 4.) 11.)
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights' (OCR) handling of discrimination cases involving Asian-Americans who applied to or were enrolled in postsecondary schools, focusing on: (1) whether OCR followed established policies and procedures in conducting complaint investigations; (2) a comparison of the timeliness and outcomes of complaint investigations and compliance reviews for fiscal years 1988 through 1995 involving Asian-Americans and other minority groups; (3) whether recent OCR administrative changes improved its performance and resolution of complaint investigations and compliance reviews.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) OCR generally followed its established policies and procedures in the 13 cases reviewed, but 7 of the 11 resolved cases exceeded OCR time frames for resolution and OCR official case files did not adequately reflect headquarters actions; (2) although its staffing levels and other resources remained stable while discrimination complaints increased, OCR averaged less than 180 days in revolving most of its general workload; (3) OCR usually took more time on average to resolve Asian-American cases than other minority cases; (4) the longer resolution periods for Asian-American cases were partially due to the high percentage of cases involving admission issues and greater number of violations per case, which took longer and more resources to resolve; (5) the resolution of Asian-American cases resulted in more corrective actions and changes made by postsecondary schools; (6) OCR has initiated administrative changes to improve its performance and resolution of complaints and compliance reviews which include setting priorities, revising procedures to respond more flexibly to complaints and reduce unnecessary documentation, increasing its use of personal computers and networks to track cases, and redeploying staff to improve productivity; and (7) although OCR has reduced its case backlog, it is too soon tell if these administrative changes will significantly improve OCR handling of complaint investigations and compliance reviews over the long term.