The Education Department announced a rule change that will no longer consider school policies that disproportionately harm one group of students as discriminatory unless the discrimination is intentional. This change rescinds a decades-long standard for civil rights enforcement.

Background

The standard has most notably been applied to school discipline policies. Data shows that Black students have been more likely to receive punishments that remove them from the classroom, such as suspensions, expulsions, and transfers to alternative schools.

Racial justice advocates have pushed for policies that would reduce those disparities, and those efforts have drawn opposition from the Trump administration. In an executive order last year, the White House directed the Education Department to issue new school discipline guidance and called for a review of organizations that had promoted policies to address disparities in discipline.

Reaction

Civil rights groups condemned the move, stating that discrimination is not always explicit and that courts have recognized this standard for decades. The rule change removes a critical guardrail for students, said Michael Pillera, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said that disparate impact had forced schools and universities to engage in racial balancing for fear of federal enforcement. “With these changes, schools will be empowered to address classroom issues without fearing the federal government will weaponize antidiscrimination laws,” Richey said.

Original reporting: Dallas TX News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.