The Education Department’s civil rights branch is losing nearly half its staff in the Trump administration’s layoffs, effectively gutting an office that already faced a backlog of thousands of complaints from students and families across the country.

The Education Department’s civil rights office has been among the hardest hit by layoffs, with the Trump administration shuttering seven of its 12 regional offices and laying off nearly half of its staff.

A commuter walks past the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Eduction, which were ordered closed for the day for what officials described as security reasons amid large-scale layoffs, Wednesday, March 12,