Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened a Title VI and disability-discrimination investigation into the Green Bay Area Public School District (the District) in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The investigation is based on a complaint filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) that alleges the District discriminated against an elementary school student with dyslexia on the basis of race. Specifically, the District allegedly prioritizes special education services to students based on racial “priority groups,” a category that the student did not fall into because he is white. The complaint further alleges the District discriminated against the student on the basis of disability and failed to provide timely and adequate special education services.
“In America, we do not ‘prioritize’ students for educational access, nor do we judge their worth, on the basis of skin color. Schools must provide special needs students access to supportive educational resources on an equal footing and on the basis of need, not on the basis of race,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “The Trump-McMahon Education Department rejects the false and patronizing idea that certain forms of discrimination are ‘benign.’ We will vigorously investigate this matter to ensure that the Green Bay Area Public School District is not discriminating against its students on the basis of race and disability.”
“We are grateful to Secretary McMahon and the Office for Civil Rights for opening this investigation into Green Bay Area Public School District. It is heartbreaking to think that, in America, a school would consider whether or not to provide services to a disabled student based not on that student’s need, but on the color his skin. This is not only unlawful – it is an affront to the character of the American people,” said Cory Brewer, Education Counsel at Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. “We are proud to work alongside the Department of Education to hold schools accountable for their antidiscrimination obligations and to ensure that no student is denied their equal opportunity protections under the law.”
Background:
WILL’s complaint details the Green Bay Area Public School District policy which establishes racial “priority groups” in its allocation of educational resources. The District allegedly stated that it will conduct “intentional work educating our focus students, prioritizing additional resources to First Nations, Black, and Hispanic students.”
WILL’s complaint further alleges that a student with dyslexia was denied timely and adequate literacy resources because he is white. When the mother of the student repeatedly petitioned the school over several months to provide her son with the requisite reading intervention for his dyslexia, the school principal reportedly told her that he felt an obligation to serve priority racial groups that have been traditionally underperforming and that the district keeps a spreadsheet that is color-coded by race to ensure that racial priority groups are receiving services first.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964) prohibits discrimination in federally funded education programs on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) prohibit recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of disability.