Schools Must End DEI Practices or Lose Federal Funds
New guidance is out for federally funded colleges, universities, and K-12 schools to become compliant with federal civil rights law.
On February 14th, the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued a letter notifying colleges, universities and K-12 schools that receive federal funds of their legal requirements under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. This letter is in response to two of President Trump’s Executive Orders, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.
The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent
According to this letter, federal law prohibits education entities from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life. They state that, “educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race”. Many institutions have been racially discriminating for years under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) Through these DEI programs and initiatives they apply a racial lens into curriculum, training, discipline and hiring, resulting in promoting harmful racial stereotypes and stigmatizing students.
Federally funded education entities have been instructed to do the following or face loosing federal funding:
ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights laws
terminate all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends
terminate all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race
The Department of Education has recently terminated $600 million in grant funds that were being used to train teachers and schools on topics like Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), social justice activism; “anti-racism”; and instruction on white privilege and white supremacy. Additionally, $350 million in grants and contracts has been terminated with several Regional Educational Laboratories and Equity Assistance Centers that were pushing projects like “equity audits” and equity conversations.
Impact on Local School Districts
As previously reported Orange County Schools (OCS), among hundreds of other school districts, have adopted policies, implemented programs and strategic plans that are in violation of federal civil rights law. Furthermore, OCS currently has policies that violate SB49, the Parents’ Bill of Rights, and have been circumventing that law for some time without being held accountable. OCS continues to allow K-4th grades to be influenced on gender identity, sexual activity, and sexuality and the school can decide whether or not to notify or involve parents if a student presents as transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming and wishes to transition at school; both practices violate SB49.
Below are current policies at OCS that will need to be reviewed and modified by the school board in order to become compliant with federal civil rights law:
Policy Code: 8702 Participation by Small, Minority, Physically Handicapped and Women Contractors
discriminates hiring/contracts based on race, sex and disability
quarterly reports track and report the race and sex of Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs)
Orange County Strategic Plan in collaboration with Policy 1030-Equity in Education
Staff affinity spaces-segregating on the basis of race
Board Resolution: Equity in Education
discriminatory hiring based on race and sex
discriminating students based on race and sex
Department of Student Engagement & Support Services
social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum-ReThinkEd
Mental Health and wellness resources
Equity Task Force-focuses explicitly on race
professional development and racial equity training that implement CRT (critical race theory) and DEI
Panorama Surveys (equity and climate surveys)
Equity audits
Equity & Inclusion Office Library
Black Student Union- Cedar Ridge High
Board Resolution: To Address Harm Caused to Students by Incidents of Hostile and Racist Behavior
North Carolina Community Schools Coalition Program
physical, mental and behavioral health providers and resources
professional development, racial equity training, gun-safety, restorative practices training, culturally relevant training, trauma-informed environment training, workshops/seminars for parents
after-school and summer camps, college/career planning
resources, programs, advocacy groups at the Family Resource Centers
Accountability
Due to the past practices of the Orange County School Board circumventing laws, it is important to pay attention to how they will respond to the required actions from the Department of Education. The practice of using covert language in order to keep parents from asking questions about DEI initiatives is a common practice. The current OCS Chief Equity Officer, Sheldon Lanier, admits to using this tactic. In past DEI policy contract work with a public charter school, he described himself as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and he advised the school board to play politics and to further broaden the verbiage (use covert language) in policy so people (parents) won’t say, “the heck with all this”. This type of covert deception will likely become more common place from schools districts that do not want to comply with the Department of Education on changes to DEI. Parents and taxpayers will need to pay close attention to what their school boards plan to adopt in changes to policy language.
The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions. The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will begin checking education entities for compliance with federal civil rights law no later than February 28th. If anyone believes their school district or college is not in compliance and is actively discriminating you may file a complaint with the OCR.
Check out past reporting on Orange County Schools: