Parents group urges Trump to ditch ‘unconstitutional’ Biden-era discipline memo

FIRST ON FOX: Grassroots parental rights advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) is urging the Trump administration to reverse “unconstitutional” Biden-era policies that penalize schools for racial disparities in discipline, as outlined in a Dear Colleague letter issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) in 2023.  

The Biden-era document pushes schools “to adopt racially discriminatory discipline policies” or face the loss of federal funding, according to PDE.

“Despite clear Supreme Court precedent holding that disparate impact alone cannot support a Title VI violation, the School Discipline Letter states that racial disparities in school discipline outcomes are prima facie evidence of racial discrimination, even when a school’s disciplinary code is race neutral,” the group wrote to the Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Thursday morning. “Moreover, the letter threatens school districts with the loss of federal funds if they do not adjust their procedures to eliminate such disparities.”

Biden’s DOJ and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released the guide in 2023 for schools to address racial discrimination in K-12 student discipline.

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“Discrimination in school discipline can have devastating long-term consequences on students and their future opportunities,” then-Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a DOJ release. 

“The Justice Department Civil Rights Division uses our federal civil rights laws to protect students from discriminatory discipline, including discrimination in suspensions and expulsions, law enforcement referrals and school-based arrests. The investigations that we describe demonstrate how students may experience discrimination based on multiple facets of their identities and reflect our joint commitment to fully protect all students.”

In the letter, the DOE and DOJ agencies wrote that their agencies engaged in “decades of enforcement activity” demonstrating “that discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in student discipline was, and continues to be, a significant concern.”

“Not surprisingly, districts got skittish about suspending too many students from certain racial groups for chronically disruptive and even violent behavior, and schools descended into chaos. … [I]t shouldn’t be controversial to state unequivocally that school policies must be race neutral.”

“Discrimination in student discipline forecloses opportunities for students, pushing them out of the classroom and diverting them from a path to success in school and beyond. Significant disparities by race – beginning as early as preschool – have persisted in the application of student discipline in schools,” the Dear Colleague letter reads. “While racial disparities in student discipline alone do not violate the law, ensuring compliance with Federal nondiscrimination obligations can involve examining the underlying causes of such disparities.”

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PDE spokesperson Erika Sanzi told Fox News Digital it’s “hard to believe” that the previous administration “thought it was noble, let alone legal, to instruct schools to adopt racially discriminatory discipline policies in order to eliminate racial disparities in their discipline data then threaten them with loss of funds if they didn’t fall in line.”

At the time of the guide’s release, the agencies completed investigations into 14 school districts across 10 states, including Alabama, Arizona, California and others. The investigations focused on whether the schools were unfairly disciplining Black, Latino and Native American students. Concerns included the use of suspensions, expulsions, school-based arrests and other actions the administration deemed discriminatory.

“Not surprisingly, districts got skittish about suspending too many students from certain racial groups for chronically disruptive and even violent behavior, and schools descended into chaos,” Sanzi said. “It’s long overdue that we rescind this letter … it shouldn’t be controversial to state unequivocally that school policies must be race neutral.”

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The DOE, which President Donald Trump hopes to fully dismantle, has reversed course on much of the previous administration’s “woke” and DEI-related policies during his first three months in office. It also launched an investigation this week into 60 universities due to allegations of antisemitism and violence against Jewish students since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Justice and the Department of Education for comment.