The US Education Department will no longer consider school policies that disproportionately harm one group of students as discriminatory unless the discrimination is intentional. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
In a rule change announced Thursday, the department said it would remove a number of disparate impact provisions from its regulations related to the implementation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of race or national origin.
In schools, the standard has most notably been applied to school discipline policies. Across the country, data shows 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 in turn 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.
In a written statement, the department 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," Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said.
Civil rights groups condemned the move. In a letter signed by 60 civil rights and educational advocacy organizations, they emphasized that discrimination is not always explicit, and that courts have recognized this standard for decades.
"Today's action has no basis in law or morality and is further evidence that this administration is determined to undermine our laws, abandon civil rights enforcement, and deny the existence of systemic discrimination," they wrote.
The rule was published and took effect immediately without public comment, an unusual step for major regulatory change.
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. If districts know the Education Department will not investigate and enforce a policy that has a discriminatory impact, they may be.