Minneapolis School District OCR agreement discipline of black students
The United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, or the OCR, enforces a number of federal civil rights laws which prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, and age.
The Department of Education conducts compliance reviews of educational institutions who are required to comply with these laws. Some of the reviews include the educational organization entering into an early resolution agreement with the department of education to help resolve any noted issues. I’d like to share an example of what that looks like.
The Department of Education conducted a compliance review concerning student discipline in the Minneapolis Public School District in Minnesota. The investigation revealed that black students in grades K-12 were significantly overrepresented in the district's disciplinary actions.
The district had entered into a voluntary resolution agreement.The OCR's investigation found “black students were considerably overrepresented in all of the district's disciplinary actions, including out-of-school suspensions, in-school suspensions, administrative transfers to other schools, referrals to law enforcement as well as detentions, Saturday school, and community service or restitution.
”Further it found that, “In 2010-11 and 2011-12, black students made up about 40 percent of the student enrollment, yet were the subject of 74 percent of the district's recorded disciplinary incidents, and black students received over 60 percent of the in-school suspensions, over 78 percent of the out-of-school suspensions, and over 69 percent of the referrals to law enforcement.” Also, it found that “Black students were also more than 73 percent of the students administratively transferred to a different school for disciplinary reasons. They were also disproportionately represented in discipline for ‘disruptive, disorderly or insubordinate’ behavior, and in 2011-12, were the only students administratively transferred to another school because of disruptive behavior.”
Included in the OCR’s investigation were a number of examples of treatment of students for which staff didn’t “clarify nondiscriminatory reason” for the different treatment. I’m going to read through the list, and as I do I want you to think about if these examples are similar to any issues you may have noticed in your own school.
A responsible school official assigning two white 9th grade students to an alternative instruction room for play fighting, but giving a one-day, out-of school suspension to a black 10th grade student for the same offense.
Assigning a white student to an alternate instruction room for bullying, but imposing a two-day out-of-school suspension on a black student who also engaged in bullying.
Assigning a white student to an alternative instruction room for fighting with another student, while suspending out of school for one or two days four black students who engaged in similar fights. And
Suspending a black 2nd grade student for one day for poking another student with a pencil but not suspending a white 2nd grade student who threw a rock and broke a teacher's sunglasses and also hit another student in the head; allowing the student to work off the cost of the sunglasses by helping the teacher at lunch for several days.
The District did, through the resolution agreement, “committed to take specific actions to ensure that it implements fair and equitable discipline policies and practices.”
More details about this specific matter can be found on the OCR’s website.
