The department announced Tuesday it has opened Title VI civil rights investigations into school districts in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, alleging administrators directed staff to factor race into disciplinary decisions. The probes come alongside new federal guidance that formally ends Obama-era policies critics say forced schools to adopt racial quotas in student discipline.
“For too long, the Left’s pursuit of ‘equity’ has perversely required schools to discipline students differently, based on their race; it has prevented teachers from keeping their classrooms safe, put students in harm’s way, and severely compromised student learning opportunities,” said Kimberly Richey, assistant secretary for civil rights, in a statement first provided to The Daily Signal.
The Fayetteville investigation centers on reports that district administrators directed teachers to “take students’ racial identities into account when issuing discipline as part of an effort to bring about ‘restorative justice’ to address ‘the disproportionality of discipline of students of color.'”
In Milwaukee, school leaders reportedly “derided school policies that appear to be neutral as reflecting systemic ‘whiteness,’ seemingly encouraging school officials to consider race in disciplinary practices.”
Tuesday’s “Dear Colleague” letter from the department urges all schools receiving federal funding to “establish a disciplinary system that creates a safe and well-ordered learning environment” and to “ensure that students are not treated differently based on race, color, or national origin in matters of discipline or otherwise.”
The guidance implements President Donald Trump’s April 2025 executive order titled “Reinstating Commonsense School Discipline Policies.” That order argued previous administrations had misinterpreted Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Today’s guidance clarifies Title VI’s legal requirements and ends these harmful practices,” she said. “The Office for Civil Rights will vigorously enforce Title VI to ensure that schools’ disciplinary systems are neutral and fair, and that they operate in a nondiscriminatory manner.”
The announcement follows the Department of Education’s move last month to reverse several disparate impact provisions from various agency regulations.
