Letter to the Hon. Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education - Concerns About Student Civil Rights

Letter

Dear Secretary DeVos,

We write to you today deeply concerned about the Trump Administration's lack of commitment to protecting the civil rights of the nation's students. This Administration's proposed budget and staffing cuts for the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and the repeal of important civil rights policy guidance, signals, at best, a troubling hands off approach to protecting the civil rights of students across the country and, at worse, a complete undermining of the equal protections guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. We urge your administration to not just commit to protecting the civil rights of all students in this country but to also do so proactively and with the utmost urgency.

The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees all people in the United States equal protection under the law and Congress has enacted civil rights laws to provide for the enforcement of that protection and ensure intervention by the federal government when that right is violated. In 2017, 60 years after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, we find ourselves still seeking to make the promise of the Constitution real. Through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Education Amendments of 1972, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Congress has worked to protect students from discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex and disability. The Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education has been tasked under the Education Organization Act of 1979 with carrying out Congress' intent in this regard. In addition, the United States Supreme Court has held that all children, regardless of immigration status, are guaranteed access to a free public education from kindergarten through 12th grade.

As an extension of Congressional authority, OCR is the vehicle through which students can seek justice when the school or the state has failed to ensure equal protection. Its mission is to "ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence through vigorous enforcement of civil rights in our nation's schools."[1] This enforcement has helped to ensure that all students have access to an education free from discrimination, harassment, and violence. These functions must not only be protected but allowed to operate to their fullest capacity to guarantee all students equal protection under the law.

Although it is the job of OCR to step in and enforce the federal protections within the Constitution, it is the responsibility of the President's Administration to support the work of OCR. This is done through the nomination of an official to lead the office that has a demonstrated record of active support for federal civil rights law and marginalized communities, robust funding for OCR in the President's budget request, and continuation of policy guidance that clarifies schools' obligations to ensure all students have equal access to education regardless of their race, ethnicity, immigration status, first language, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

The Trump Administration has failed to provide the support necessary for the OCR to meet its enforcement obligations the reduced funding for OCR proposed in the President's FY2018 education budget, the rollback of guidance clarifying protections for transgender students, and noncommittal answers offered to Members of the House of Representatives and Senate signal your lack of commitment to protecting all students and fulfilling the mission of the agency you lead.

Although you stated affirmatively in your testimony before the Senate Labor, Health, and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee that recipients of federal funds must follow federal law, we urge you to turn these words into action. You have authority as the Secretary of Education to make sure that every school receiving federal funds follows our nation's civil rights laws and protects students from discrimination.

We urge you to reconsider recent guidance issued to OCR that rescinds mandates requiring investigators to address systemic school climate issues and also to alert officials of urgent complaints on issues such as the disproportionate disciplining of minority students and the mishandling of sexual assaults on college campuses. OCR has played a critical role in investigating school discipline policies, which disproportionately affects African-American boys and girls. It is impossible to address justice on a case by case basis, as this recent guidance urges the OCR to do. The OCR's work gets to the heart of systemic issues affecting students across the country, and this work needs to be allowed to continue. Secondly, we urge you to preserve the scope, frequency, and public accessibility of the data collected through the Civil Rights Data Collection. This tool allows policymakers, parents, educators, and the public greater insight into a number of equity and accessibility issues, such as the use of exclusionary school discipline. Lastly, we urge you to maintain the current policy guidance issued by OCR, especially with regard to campus sexual assault, the rights of undocumented students, and schools' obligations to students with disabilities.

Every student deserves a chance to learn, explore their talents, and be successful regardless of their race, ethnicity, immigration status, first language, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity. OCR has done important work to ensure that this is a reality--and this work needs to continue. We respectfully urge you to act on our requests, to indicate not only to Congress but to students and families across the country that the administration takes their civil rights and protections seriously. The Department must proactively support schools to prevent discrimination and intervene when the law is broken. Our students need and deserve action.