Our friend Hans Bader has a new column at the Competitive Enterprise Institute which looks at new bullying rules from the Education Department.

Education Department Harassment Rules Metastasize through Administrative Fiat

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), where I used to work, today declared that schools can be liable for bullying (or anything else) that creates a “hostile educational environment” for a disabled student. Indeed, it says that for students covered by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a school can be liable even if their “harassment” is not based on their disability at all, covering such “students with disabilities who are bullied on any basis” if it affects their education.

This is regulatory overreaching on many different levels. First, school bullying is largely a matter for states, not the federal government (indeed, 49 states have laws specifically addressing school bullying).

Second, OCR has no jurisdiction over one of the two laws it just interpreted (because that law, the IDEA, is administered by another agency known as OSERS). To get around that, OCR has read that statute into one it does have jurisdiction over (the Rehabilitation Act) by administrative fiat, essentially multiplying the number of the bureaucratic entities that can harass a school district over allegations of “harassment” against the disabled.

This is just the latest instance of federal lawlessness and overreaching under the Obama administration. It has also sought to restrict students’ free speech and due process rights on college campuses and in the public schools. The Obama administration sought to unconstitutionally meddle in hiring at religious schools. It has made schools less safe, and made it harder to discipline some bullies, by pressuring some public schools to adopt veiled racial quotas in discipline.