Education Week reports,
Federal civil rights officials today said that school districts and colleges and universities may legally consider race when making decisions about school assignments, admissions and other programs that are designed to increase diversity and reduce racial isolation.
The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education jointly released the new, more flexible guidelines that are meant to clear up confusion on how and when race can be considered in the wake of three earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
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When a race-neutral approach doesn’t work, the guidance spells out that school districts may use “generalized race-based approaches” that employ express racial criteria as long as it does not involve decision-making on the basis of any individual student’s race. The generalized approach could include consideration of overall racial compositions of neighborhoods when drawing attendance zones.
It is not clear how “generalized race-based approaches” square with three key U.S. Supreme Court cases: Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1; Grutter v. Bollinger; and Gratz v. Bollinger, which prohibit the use of race-based student assignment and admissions schemes. Stay tuned.
