Dive Brief:
-
The New York City Department of Education came under federal investigation on Tuesday for allegedly violating Title VI, the civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.
-
The nation's largest school district is the third in a list of districts that the U.S. Department of Education announced it is investigating in response to increased antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of discrimination reported in public schools and on college campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
-
The open investigation adds to New York DOE's 18 pending investigations opened by the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights under Title VI alone. Those investigations span issues including discipline, racial harassment and admissions.
Dive Insight:
Last week, a U.S. Department of Education spokesperson confirmed that the federal agency planned to continue opening investigations into school districts and colleges as part of its aggressive enforcement of Title VI to protect Jewish, Muslim, Arab and Sikh students, among others, from unsafe and exclusionary educational environments.
New York City's investigation comes after those opened into Kansas' Maize Unified School District and Florida's Hillsborough County Public Schools earlier this month.
However, the federal agency has made clear that starting an investigation doesn’t mean Title VI has necessarily been violated.
New York City Public Schools, with 1.1 million students in over 1,800 schools, is not only the largest school district in the country but is also known as one of the most segregated.
It falls into the top 10 most racially segregated schools for white-Black, white-Hispanic, and white-Asian segregation, according to a segregation index developed last year by researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Education and the University of Southern California. The findings were based on data between 1991 and 2020.
New York City Public Schools said in a statement to K-12 Dive that it received notice of an investigation and plans to "cooperate fully."
“As Chancellor [David] Banks has made clear on numerous occasions, hate or bias of any kind has no place in our public schools," said Nathaniel Styer, spokesperson for the district.
During a Monday press conference, Banks addressed a "completely unacceptable" incident that occurred last week involving approximately 400 students at Hillcrest High School. The students "acted disruptively during class changing time" by calling for the removal of a Jewish educator who was targeted for her support for Israel, he said.
"There's a lot that is going on here, but I would suggest that it is not unlike what is happening in schools all across our city and across the nation," said Banks.
In its initial announcement of stepped-up Title VI enforcement on Nov. 16, the federal Education Department said it was "increasing transparency into our investigations for public awareness." The rare move veered from the department’s usual tendency to limit publicity over open investigations.
While the department does not share details of pending investigations, it makes public its findings and any recommendations for school districts found in violation of civil rights laws once the case is settled.
If schools don’t comply with OCR's findings and resolution agreement, they risk losing federal funding.
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told ABC News that it is "never the goal" to "punish students by withdrawing money" from universities, which, in addition to public school districts, are under Education Department investigation in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
"I don't anticipate it going there," he said. "Ultimately, removal of federal dollars is something that can happen, but that would require someone to refuse to create safe learning environments.”
