Trump administration reverses school discipline policy created to address racial disparities

New federal guidance tells schools not to consider race in discipline decisions despite longstanding disparities affecting Black students.

The U.S. Department of Education has opened investigations into two school districts while issuing new guidance warning schools against considering students’ race when making disciplinary decisions. The move reverses the approach taken under the Obama and Biden administrations and reignites a long-running debate over racial disparities in school suspensions.

According to NPR, the investigations come alongside new federal guidance from Office of Civil Rights head Kimberly Richey stating that schools should not take a student’s race into account when disciplining them. The guidance goes further, arguing that using race as a factor in discipline constitutes unlawful discrimination.

The position represents a sharp reversal from the Obama administration’s 2014 guidance. That policy encouraged schools to examine student discipline data for racial disparities as Black students were suspended at disproportionately high rates.

At the time, federal data showed that Black students accounted for about 15% of the nation’s student population but 35% of students suspended once and 44% of students suspended more than once. A task force found no evidence that these disparities could simply be explained by differences in student behavior, pointing instead to factors including racial stereotypes.

The 2014 approach encouraged districts to move away from suspensions and expulsions and toward student discipline alternatives such as restorative justice. The first Trump administration formally rescinded the 2014 guidance in 2018. The Biden administration later restored an approach that allowed federal officials to scrutinize significant racial disparities in discipline.

The latest federal position makes clear that the Trump administration wants schools to prioritize race-neutral disciplinary standards, while civil rights advocates warn that ignoring racial disparities could make existing inequities harder to detect.