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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 108 / Tuesday, June 8, 2021 / Notices
include in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Alejandro Reyes, Director, Program Legal Group, Office for Civil Rights, Potomac Center Plaza PCP, Room 6125, 550 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20024. Telephone: 202 2457272.
Email: Alejandro.Reyes@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf TDD or a text telephone TTY, please call the Federal Relay Service FRS, toll free, at 1800
8778339.
If you have difficulty understanding English, you may request language assistance services for Department information that is available to the public. These language assistance services are available free of charge. If you need more information about interpretation or translation services, please call 1800USALEARN 1800
8725327 TTY: 18008778339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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I. Background A. OCRs Role in Enforcing Federal Civil Rights Laws OCR enforces Federal civil rights laws and their implementing regulations, including those that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, or national origin Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq., 34 CFR part 100 Title VI; sex Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq., 34 CFR
part 106; disability Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C.
794, 34 CFR part 104, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. 12131 et seq., 28 CFR part 35; 1 and age Age Discrimination Act of 1975, 42 U.S.C. 6101 et seq., 34 CFR
part 110. These laws prohibit discrimination in the programs or activities of schools and other entities that receive Federal financial assistance from the Department recipients, or, in the case of Title II, are public entities, regardless of whether they receive Federal financial assistance.
These laws apply to a wide range of entities, including all State educational agencies SEAs; approximately 17,600
local educational agencies LEAs; over 5,000 postsecondary institutions; 80
State vocational rehabilitation agencies and their subrecipients; and other institutions that receive Departmental financial assistance, such as libraries, museums, and correctional institutions.
1 OCR shares, with DOJ, responsibility for compliance with Title II with regard to educational institutions. 28 CFR subpart 35.190b2; 28 CFR
subparts 35.17235.174.

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OCR fulfills its mission to protect civil rights in many ways, including by 1 responding to civil rights complaints filed by members of the public; 2
proactively conducting compliance reviews and directed investigations to enforce Federal civil rights laws; 3
monitoring recipients adherence to resolution agreements reached with OCR; 4 issuing policy guidance to increase recipients understanding of their civil rights obligations and students and families awareness of students civil rights; 5 providing technical assistance and other information to recipients and the public;
and 6 administering and disseminating the Civil Rights Data Collection CRDC.
OCR develops policy guidance based on legal developments, its enforcement work, and civil rights data trends. In addition, OCR develops policy guidance, technical assistance, and other informational materials in response to compliance concerns raised by public inquiries, requests for technical assistance, and engagement with a wide array of education and civil rights stakeholders. OCRs policy guidance and technical assistance are designed to ensure that every student has equal access to education programs and activities free from discrimination.
These guidance and technical assistance documents are available on OCRs website at www.ed.gov/ocr/frontpage/
faq/readingroom.html.
B. OCR and Other Federal Agency Policy Guidance on the Nondiscriminatory Administration of School Discipline As described below, OCR and other Federal agencies have taken multiple approaches to analyze and address longstanding issues related to the nondiscriminatory administration of school discipline and the creation of positive school climates.
OCR and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division CRT: In 2014, following input from a wide array of stakeholders, OCR and CRT jointly released a Dear Colleague letter on the nondiscriminatory administration of school discipline and related materials guidance to identify, avoid, and remedy discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in the administration of school discipline and create a positive school climate.2 The 2 Dear Colleague Letter on Nondiscriminatory Administration of School Discipline January 8, 2014 rescinded available at https www2.ed.gov/
about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201401-titlevi.html. See also, EDDOJ School Discipline Guidance package website archived available at https www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/schooldiscipline/fedefforts.htmlguidance.

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guidance emphasized the requirements of Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protect students from race, color, or national origin discrimination, and discussed both racial and national origin discrimination due to different treatment of, and unjustified disparate impacts on, students of color. The guidance also noted how the growing and disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline policies, such as in-school and out-of-school suspensions, caused students to lose instructional time and created the potential for significant, negative educational and other longterm impacts that contributed to the school-to-prison pipeline.
In 2018, OCR and CRT issued a Dear Colleague letter that rescinded the 2014
guidance.3 This rescission followed a report and recommendations issued by the 2018 Federal Commission on School Safety.4 In 2018, OCR also issued a question-and-answer document with information on how OCR assesses a schools compliance with Title VI with respect to the administration of school discipline.5
U.S. Government Accountability Office GAO and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights USCCR: GAO released a report in March 2018 in which it analyzed CRDC discipline data from the 201314 school year. This report found that Black students, boys, and students with disabilities were disproportionately disciplined regardless of the type of disciplinary action, level of school poverty, or type of public school attended. 6
Likewise, in its 2019 report BEYOND SUSPENSIONS: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilitiesthe USCCR found that:
Students of color as a whole, as well as by individual racial group, do not commit more disciplinable offenses than their white peersbut black students, Latino students, and Native American students in the aggregate receive substantially more school discipline than their white peers and 3 Dear Colleague letter December 21, 2018
available at https www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/
ocr/letters/colleague-201812.pdf.
4 Federal Commission on School Safety listening session transcripts, report and recommendations are available at https www.ed.gov/school-safety.
5 OCRs Questions and Answers on Racial Discrimination and School Discipline December 21, 2018 is available at https www2.ed.gov/about/
offices/list/ocr/docs/qa-title-vi-201812.pdf.
6 U.S. Government Accountability Office, K12
Education: Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with Disabilities, 12
March 2018 available at https www.gao.gov/
products/gao-18-258.

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