Racial Discrimination in Schools—Change in Federal Focus Doesn’t Change Schools’ Liability

The Trump Administration’s Department of Education issued a new guidance that may have a wide-ranging impact when it comes to how the federal government investigates and litigates allegations of racial discrimination in schools—specifically relating to children’s discipline.

It’s worth understanding the policy change, but make no mistake: Racial discrimination in schools is illegal under federal law, and if your child has been punished because of their race, then your child and family may be entitled to financial compensation and other remedies.

So don’t wait. Call the Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or contact us online.

The Idea Behind ‘Disparate Impact’

When it comes to school discipline, there have been many studies showing that Black children are much more likely to be physically restrained, expelled, and face other severe forms of punishment.

According to a 2024 study, Black children were 15 times more likely to have experienced corporal punishment in schools overall. And when these children attended wealthier schools, they were five times more likely to be suspended and almost eight times more likely to be expelled.

Given this data, the Biden and Obama Administrations maintained a policy that schools’ punishment of children should be evaluated under a “disparate impact” legal standard. Under that standard, even if a stated law, policy, or practice did not expressly refer to race, it could still be considered racially discriminatory if it disproportionately impacted a particular racial group.

However, in a “Dear Colleague” letter, the Trump Administration’s Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights announced that it was ending the office’s use of a “disparate impact” analysis. Instead, it will only litigate instances of direct racial discrimination.

How Will This Affect Allegations of Racial Discrimination in Schools?

As an example of how this policy change could affect children, consider that schools cannot have a direct policy that they treat Black children more harshly, but now imagine that one school with a majority-minority student body was chronically understaffed and underfunded by its district. That led to lower-quality faculty and administrative practices, and then the effect was that the minority children suffered the consequences.

Under the “disparate impact” analysis, the school district could still be considered as racially discriminating against those students.

However, the Trump policy will not consider this downstream effect of the funding and staffing. Instead, it will only examine if the school district’s policies are facially neutral.

Having Experienced Legal Representation Is Even More Important

While the impact of the new policy may reduce the Office of Civil Rights’ investigation of schools, this policy is not the end of the story. The Supreme Court held that private parties have no right of action to enforce disparate-impact claims under a facially neutral policy. But private parties may sue for relief from intentional discrimination (discriminatory animus).

For parents and children currently dealing with racial discrimination, school districts and the Department of Education are not likely to go forward with investigations. Instead, families will need to go after the schools on their own. It is vital that they have legal representation who can demonstrate that a school’s practices are motivated by racial animus.

That’s still possible. But it will take great lawyers to litigate the case—conduct great interviews, gather important evidence, research the law, and refute any claims of racial neutrality.

The bottom line is that, if your family is dealing with racial discrimination, you need to get experienced lawyers to fight for you—to get you the compensation and other remedies that you deserve.

So call the LLF National Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or contact us online.