Education Department fails to report thousands of racial discrimination complaints in schools
newsdepo.com
Students in American schools are increasingly reporting more incidents of racial discrimination, yet the Department of Education is underreporting their complaints. According to The Huffington Post, an analysis based on data from 2013 to 2016 found that moEducation Department fails to report thousands of racial discrimination complaints in schools
Students in American schools are increasingly reporting more incidents of racial discrimination, yet the Department of Education is underreporting their complaints. According to The Huffington Post, an analysis based on data from 2013 to 2016 found that more than 2,000 allegations of race-based discrimination in schools were excluded from the department’s annual reports. Like all things in the government, the process for dealing with these incidents in the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is complicated. Most racial discrimination complaints are dismissed because they don’t have enough information or they are deemed untimely. And under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ leadership, the department is now cutting back the OCR’s work. During the Obama administration, the office increased its enforcement of civil rights laws in schools. The Trump administration is doing just the opposite. DeVos has already rescinded protection for transgender students and is trying to reduce the number of complaints that OCR will consider. Additionally, there are attempts being made to reduce the staff. The office is now dismissing complaints at a faster rate and is also way more likely not to find civil rights violations in the cases it is actually does process. A spokesperson for the department explains the disparity between the number of cases actually filed versus those reported by saying that not all complaints are categorized before the annual report is issued. They estimate these represent 10 to 15 percent of their cases. But Huffington Post findings indicate that “deflated numbers continue to be used even years after the annual reports are released in documents like the 2019 budget request.” Interestingly, while discrimination against black students comprises the majority of complaints, complaints of discrimination against white students have increased in recent years. In 2010, they made up 2.71 percent of all complaints. By 2017, they had increased to 6.86 percent. Still, this number only represents 50 complaints in total. The underreporting of racial discrimination complaints in the Education Department did not begin with the Trump administration, but it’s no surprise that they continue under it. Read more