Civil rights attorney Melissa Malonson emptied her desk at the downtown Dallas office of the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday morning, stuffing her life’s work into cardboard boxes.

Malonson, who worked for the department for 25 years, packed planners, textbooks and certificates. In one box, a crayon drawing from her daughter was tucked next to a framed certificate marking ten years of service with the Education Department from 2009.

She walked out of the office at 1201 Elm St. for the last time with about two dozen supporters — mostly other federal employees — cheering for her.

Malonson, 51, burst into tears. Her aunt hugged her and said, “We got you. We got you.”

Malonson was one of more than 4,000 federal employees laid off in March when the Education Department eliminated six of its regional offices, including Dallas.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to abolish the department shortly after. That order is being challenged in court.

“Students and parents are the ones that are going to suffer,” Malonson said. “The bulk of what we do is help disabled kids.”

The department’s Office of Civil Rights enforces federal laws that protect students against discrimination. It responds to complaints based on race, disability, age and national origin discrimination, among others.

Texas has more than a thousand cases under review at OCR. More than half are related to students with disabilities whose families reported concerns about improper restraint, harassment, denial of benefits, challenges to accessing free and appropriate education, and more.

As a lawyer for the department, Malonson helped make schools more accessible for children with disabilities by investigating claims and working with school system leaders to implement changes.

That included adapting playgrounds and ensuring school personnel carried insulin when going on field trips with students who have diabetes, she said.

The now former employees of the Dallas office are unsure who will tackle its most fundamental work, including handling civil rights complaints for students with disabilities and managing student financial aid.

Trump said at the order signing that much of the department’s work would go to states or other federal agencies. The move is part of his effort to downsize and streamline the federal government. For example, the administration previously announced hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to contracts with the Department of Education.

Before closing, those working for the Office for Civil Rights in the Dallas office investigated cases across Texas and in other southern states.

People have emailed Malonson in recent weeks, asking about the status of their civil rights complaints, she said. Malonson doesn’t know where those cases will go now.

Department of Education officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment over email.

Former staffers worry that civil rights investigations, which often take months or years to complete, will stall under the cuts. Families were frustrated with the delays even before Trump’s administration eliminated several regional offices.

Cynthia Thornton spent 17 years at the office working on getting financial aid into the hands of students so they could attend college.

When she walked into the building to turn in her laptop and a company credit card Tuesday, she wondered who would make sure “students get the money they deserve.”

“I just hope the administration will continue to advocate for the students and not let predatory and proprietary lenders and schools take advantage of students,” Thornton said. “It’s in the administration’s hands.”

Malonson thought about how being an attorney for the department was her first job after graduating from law school at the University of Texas at Austin in 1999.

Born and raised in Carrollton, she worked her way up from general attorney to supervisor attorney.

On Tuesday, she pulled out a photograph with a mentor who guided her during her first years from her boxes of belongings. It brought her to tears.

“This was my career,” she said. “This was my dream job, and I was really good at it, too.”

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism, Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.