The closing of a federal office in Chicago is making parents across Illinois nervous.

One rural Illinois family drove four hours to talk with CBS News Chicago. They are concerned that with the Chicago office of a unit within the U.S. Department of Education having closed, an incident involving their special-needs son and a substitute teacher at the school he attends will not get the attention it needs.

Xander Reed, 6, has been diagnosed with Level 3 autism — the most severe form. Xander is nonverbal, and has to be monitored constantly by his father, Scott, and mother, Amanda, as the boy takes off suddenly.

Xander requires constant monitoring at school too.

"He can't dress himself," said Scott Reed. "He can't tell you what he wants."

Xander's individualized education program, or IEP, calls for an aide all day and various therapy services.

The Reeds are upset that Xander can't attend his neighborhood school in Greenfield, Illinois — a town of about 1,000 people 57 miles north St. Louis — because of his autism needs.

Scott Reed said administrators told them, "Their building isn't set up for it, that they can't hire a full-time teacher and have a dedicated classroom for one or two students."

The district's solution is to bus Xander to a special education program designed for children with special needs called the Garrison School. The problem is the ride there is a 50-mile round trip.

"They said that this is the only placement for Xander, so we at least need to give it a shot," said Amanda Reed.

But then came an incident caught on grainy video in April. A substitute teacher at Garrison dragged Xander down a hallway by his ankle.

"Even though I was looking at it on the footage, I couldn't believe that this had just happened to our child," said Amanda Reed.

The substitute teacher was arrested and fired.

Xander's parents were left to wonder if their child was safe, and how well his special needs school vets its hires.

"Something had to have fallen through the cracks there," said Scott Reed.

The Reeds considered making a complaint to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The Chicago branch was located inside the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building downtown, until it was shut down a few months ago.

In March, President Trump announced his executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education — citing high spending and low test scores. The president's signature immediately prompted the department to slash its staff by almost half.

Part of the cuts included administrative leave for hundreds of investigators tasked with looking into complaints of discrimination or harassment in schools. Entire teams got the boot, and seven out of 12 DOE Office for Civil Rights locations were closed — including the one in Chicago.

"I am aware of many cases that have been transferred to different offices," said attorney Jackie Wernz.

Wernz now runs a company that helps schools respond to accusations of civil rights violations. Years ago, she worked on the other side, as an investigator for the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education out of Chicago.

"It was not uncommon to have 30, 40 cases on your docket that were open at a time," Wernz said.

Wernz and other special education experts said they worry a case like Xander's' will get lost in the mix given all the departmental changes. School discrimination complaints from Illinois are currently being funneled to Colorado.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education told CBS News Chicago that the Office for Civil Rights previously had a "chronic backlog of tens of thousands of cases," and that staffing changes are helping to "reform a broken federal bureaucracy."

The spokesperson said the department is working to "improve efficiency" with more mediation and a process called rapid resolution.

"It's impossible. It is impossible," said Wernz. "You cannot cut the staff in half and then say we're still doing the same work."

Between the layoffs, Xander's parents are not convicted they would get a fair shake at a federal investigation into the dragging incident.

"My fear is this just gets swept under the rug," said Amanda Reed.

The Reeds also want their first grader taken out of his alternative school. But they learned that aspect of the complaint — getting him educated closer to home — needs to be handled at the federal level.

This amounts to another battle with more paperwork.

"It seems like, because he's special, it's a fight every step of the way," said Scott Reed.

CBS News Chicago spoke to an Illinois education attorney who connected the Reeds to an advocate in their area. The advocate is helping the Reeds talk to their school district and the state about their concerns.

The superintendent of Greenfield schools said student confidentiality prevents him from commenting on accommodation requests.

Administrators from the Garrison School, where the substitute teacher was arrested, did not respond to CBS News Chicago's questions.