DOJ and DOE Clarify How and When Schools can Consider Race
The U.S. Dep’t of Justice and U.S. Dep’t of Education released new guidelines for schools, clearing up how and when race can be considered. The more flexible guidance is largely based on the following Supreme Court cases: Parents Involved in Community Schools v Seattle School District No. 1; Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger.
The two sets of guidance documents—one for K-12 school districts and the other for colleges and universities—cancel out those that were issued by the Education Department in August 2008 during the Bush administration.
“Racial isolation remains far too common in America’s classrooms today and it is increasing,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “This denies our children the experiences they need to succeed in a global economy, where employers, co-workers, and customers will be increasingly diverse. It also breeds educational inequity, which is inconsistent with America’s core values.”
The new guidelines are meant to clarify how school districts may legally consider the race of students in their plans to promote diversity and limit racial isolation in schools. . . .
According to the new guidance, school districts may use “race-neutral” approaches to make decisions about whether to admit individual students into competitive admissions schools or programs, as well as for drawing school boundary lines. Such approaches would include using students’ socioeconomic status, parental education levels, the socioeconomic status of neighborhoods and the composition of an area’s housing, such as its share of subsidized housing or rental housing.
The guidance says that such race-neutral approaches are required to be used “only if they are workable. . . .”
When a race-neutral approach doesn’t work, the guidance spells out that school districts may use “generalized race-based approaches” that employ express racial criteria as long as it does not involve decision-making on the basis of any individual student’s race. The generalized approach could include consideration of overall racial compositions of neighborhoods when drawing attendance zones.
School districts will also be able to consider the race of individual students if it is “narrowly tailored to meet a compelling interest” such as avoiding racial isolation, the guidance states [in other words, it meets strict scrutiny].
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