Trump officials to roll back Obama-era school policies which protect minority students from discrimination

The Trump administration is planning to roll back Obama-era policies aimed at ensuring minority children are not unfairly disciplined, arguing that the efforts have eased up on punishment and contributed to rising violence in the nation’s schools, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

The decision culminates a nearly year-long effort begun by the Trump administration after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The deaths of 17 students and staff members on 14 February prompted lawmakers in both parties to demand tougher gun laws, but after a brief flirtation with gun control, President Donald Trump abandoned that focus and instead empowered a school safety commission, led by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Almost immediately, the commission turned away from guns and instead scrutinised the Obama administration’s school discipline policies, though none of the most high-profile school shootings were perpetrated by black students. The commission’s focus was part of a broader effort to reject the previous administration’s race-conscious education efforts, which have included siding with Asian students suing Harvard to end affirmative action and delaying an Obama-era rule to prevent disproportionate numbers of minority children from being funnelled into special education classes.

The documents obtained by The Times — a draft letter and a draft chapter of the safety commission’s research — focus significantly on race and promote the idea that the federal crackdown on potentially discriminatory practices has made schools more dangerous.

“The federal government’s paramount obligation is to guarantee student safety, including when it is acting to ensure that educational programmes and policies are administered in a racially neutral fashion,” the commission wrote. “However, where well-meaning but flawed policies endanger student safety, they must be changed.”

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Disability and civil rights advocates will almost certainly denounce the latest policy manoeuvre. The Obama administration policies were adopted after strong evidence emerged that minority students were receiving more suspensions and tougher punishments than white students for the same or lesser offences, while disabled students were too quickly being shunted into remedial or special-education programmes.

“Safety is a red herring intended to raise fears about our own children,” said Eve Hill, a disability rights lawyer at Brown, Goldstein & Levy who worked on the Obama-era discipline guidance while a lawyer in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The Education and Justice departments plan to send a joint letter this week announcing the rescinding of policy statements dating to 2014, according to a draft letter signed by Kenneth L Marcus, the Education Department’s head of civil rights, and Eric S Dreiband, assistant attorney general for civil rights.

The 2014 Obama policy advised schools on how to dole out discipline in a non-discriminatory manner, and examine education data to look for racial disparities that could flag a federal civil rights violation. Though the guidance is non-binding, critics have argued the edict pressured districts to keep suspensions low at the expense of student safety.

“The guidance burdened local school districts, potentially exceeded the departments’ legal authority and may have made students less safe,” Trump civil rights officials wrote.

Neither the draft letter nor the commission report was final.

A Justice Department spokesperson defended the review as an effort to make sure policies “do not go beyond the law or are inconsistent with the Constitution.”

“We are continuing to review documents to prevent improper rule making and executive branch overreach,” said Kelly Laco, the spokesperson. “The Justice Department remains committed to enforcing the law and protecting all Americans from all forms of illegal race-based discrimination.”

The Education Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The school safety commission is expected to issue recommendations on Tuesday on a range of issues, including mental health resources, positive behavioural support programmes and school security. Trump officials wrote that six documents related to the Obama administration’s “Rethink Discipline” package will be rescinded based on the commission’s recommendation.

Trump officials argued in the commission report that the Obama administration employed a “dubious” reading of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to assert that civil rights law extended to even-handed policies that may unintentionally harm certain groups.

The report referred to two Supreme Court rulings, one in 1978 and another in 2001, which affirmed that Title VI extended only to intentional discrimination.

In undermining court rulings, the commission said the Obama administration “gave schools a perverse incentive to make discipline rates proportional to enrolment figures, regardless of the appropriateness of discipline for any specific instance of misconduct.”

The Obama-era guidelines were released when federal data showed black students were three times as likely to be suspended or expelled, and black and Hispanic students made up more than half of the nation’s school-related arrests and referrals. In the near-half-decade since the guidelines were issued, those numbers have not improved.

Obama administration officials wrote in 2014 that discipline rates may be caused by a range of factors, but they could not be explained solely “by more frequent or more serious misbehaviour by students of colour.”

“In short, racial discrimination in school discipline is a real problem,” they wrote.

The Education and Justice departments under Mr Trump argue they are not convinced large racial gaps are attributable to discrimination.

“Research indicates that disparities that fall along racial lines may be due to societal factors other than race,” they wrote.

In the year before Parkland, Ms DeVos met with education advocacy groups to hear their support for and opposition to the Obama-era guidelines.

Proponents of the guidance argued it had been an invaluable resource for schools and districts that want to foster a positive school environment and had improved educational outcomes for minority children.

Other educators told Ms DeVos they felt powerless to manage bad behaviour in their classrooms and were pressured by administrators to turn a blind eye to dangerous incidents.

The New York Times