The US Department of Education recently released guidance prohibiting schools from implementing “Racial Balancing” policies in the process of disciplining students, requiring schools to apply the same standards impartially.
“Racial Balancing” typically refers to institutional or school administrators artificially adjusting admissions, recruitment, or allocation policies to reflect or correspond to the racial or ethnic composition of the local community or the overall population. In the United States, this concept originated from judicial remedies for desegregation of public schools after the civil rights movement. Courts have allowed using racial proportions as a preliminary reference to correct historical racial segregation.
The guidance from the Department of Education points out that schools cannot simply modify disciplinary policies to reduce racial disparities and cannot establish different disciplinary policies for different races.
The Department’s Office for Civil Rights stated in a letter on Tuesday, August 18, that schools changing their disciplinary policies to avoid or reduce racial disparities in disciplinary actions constitute racial discrimination.
The letter emphasized that “Racial Balancing” policies constitute discrimination, so schools must ensure that all students are not discriminated against based on race.
Previously, last month, the Department of Education ordered the cancellation of several “Disparate Impact” regulations. “Disparate Impact” regulations share similarities with “Racial Balancing.” Supporters of the “Disparate Impact” regulations argue that these regulations have been prohibiting policies and practices with discriminatory effects (often unintended) for decades.
Critics of the Department of Education’s guidance believe that these guidelines make it even more challenging to address the longstanding racial disparities in school discipline. Eric Duncan, the P-12 Policy Director of EdTrust, an education equity advocacy organization, said, “Black students have always faced the harshest disciplinary actions in our nation’s schools.”
This article was adapted from a report by Reuters.