Today, the U.S. Department of Education instructed state education commissioners overseeing K-12 State Education Agencies (SEAs) to certify compliance with federal antidiscrimination obligations before continuing to receive federal financial aid. The certification involves compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and guidelines outlined in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, stated, “Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right. When state education commissioners accept federal funds, they agree to abide by federal antidiscrimination requirements. Unfortunately, we have seen too many schools flout or outright violate these obligations, including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another based on identity characteristics in clear violation of Title VI.” He added, “Today, the Department is taking an important step toward ensuring that states understand—and comply with—their existing obligations under civil rights laws and Students v. Harvard. As Chief Justice Roberts wrote, ‘Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.’ No student should be denied opportunities or treated differently because of his or her race. We hope all State and Local Education Agencies agree and certify their compliance with this legal and constitutional principle.”
SEAs are tasked with overseeing and collecting certification responses from their Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and are given ten days to return the signed certification.
The certifications align with the Department of Education's authority to ensure adherence to U.S. civil rights law by recipients of federal funding. On February 14, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Dear College Letter (DCL) to federally funded educational institutions, instructing them to discontinue the use of race preferences and stereotypes in several aspects of their programs, including admissions and hiring. Following up two weeks later, OCR released a Frequently Asked Questions document to address potential inquiries regarding the DCL.
