Discrimination complaints logged in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights skyrocketed in 2021, The New York Times reported earlier in the month. The number reflects in part the challenges presented by COVID, and a “divisive civil rights climate.”

Figures provided by the department, the article said, showed that “nearly 19,000 complaints were filed to the office in the last fiscal year — between Oct. 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022 — more than double the previous year and breaking the record of 16,000 filed in fiscal year 2016.” The majority of complaints, it noted, “allege discrimination against students with disabilities.”

Disability Scoop, which also reported on the findings, writes that “just in the last year, the Office for Civil Rights has reached four agreements regarding the use of restraint and seclusion and resolved concerns about failing to meet the needs of students with disabilities during the pandemic with two large school districts.”