{"id":15316,"date":"2026-07-24T03:53:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T22:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15316"},"modified":"2026-07-24T03:53:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T22:53:40","slug":"education-department-rescinds-disparate-impact-rule-a-key-tool-used-to-assess-school-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15316","title":{"rendered":"Education Department rescinds disparate impact rule, a key tool used to assess school discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">WASHINGTON &#8212; <\/span>The Education Department will no longer consider school policies that disproportionately harm one group of students as discriminatory unless the discrimination is intentional, rescinding a decades-long standard for civil rights enforcement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In a rule change announced Thursday, the department said it would remove a number of <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-discrimination-ai-eeoc-disparate-impact-a2e8aba11f3d3f095df95d488c6b3c40\">disparate impact<\/a> provisions from its regulations related to the implementation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of race or national origin. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In schools, the standard has most notably been applied to school discipline policies. Across the country, data shows <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ferguson-black-lives-matter-school-discipline-suspension-d099aab519ff743dc2be04c6b6132144\">Black students<\/a> have been more likely to receive punishments that remove them from the classroom, such as suspensions, expulsions and transfers to alternative schools. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Racial justice advocates have pushed for policies that would reduce those disparities, and those efforts in turn have drawn opposition from the Trump administration. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In an executive order last year, the White House directed the Education Department to issue new school discipline guidance, and called for a review of organizations that had promoted policies to address disparities in discipline. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In a written statement, the department said that disparate impact had forced schools and universities to engage in racial balancing for fear of federal enforcement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWith these changes, schools will be empowered to address classroom issues without fearing the federal government will weaponize antidiscrimination laws,\u201d Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Civil rights groups condemned the move. In a letter signed by 60 civil rights and educational advocacy organizations, they emphasized that discrimination is not always explicit, and that courts have recognized this standard for decades. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cToday\u2019s action has no basis in law or morality and is further evidence that this administration is determined to undermine our laws, abandon civil rights enforcement, and deny the existence of systemic discrimination,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The rule was published and took effect immediately without public comment, an unusual step for major regulatory change. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The rule change removes a critical guardrail for students, said Michael Pillera, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. If districts know the Education Department will not investigate and enforce a policy that has a discriminatory impact, they may be more likely to continue that practice, he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThe concept is you can&#8217;t create an unjust and unnecessary barrier that excludes folks on the basis of race. It has essentially the same impact as if you were doing it explicitly,\u201d Pillera said. \u201cThat is what this is meant to stop.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Other federal agencies also have moved away from disparate impact as a legal standard for enforcement. A White House executive order signed last April directed federal agencies to no longer rely on disparate impact analysis when enforcing anti-discrimination laws. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Justice Department and the Department of Energy rescinded their disparate impact guidance last year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">And in May, fair housing groups sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over its changes to disparate impact regulations, which they said would reverse decades of lending protections and remove the guardrails for preventing discrimination against minorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Advocates said that the change would further diminish the Education Department&#8217;s role in protecting students of color, in addition to the downsizing and transfer of the Office for Civil Rights and the prioritization of cases that investigate racial equity policies as <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-education-civil-rights-49a9916076cb5fba533e6d42462bf1f0\">discriminatory<\/a> against white students. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The changes to the federal government\u2019s role in civil rights enforcement will have resounding impacts for communities, said Hamida Labi, senior policy counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThis is a part of the Trump administration\u2019s broader overall attack on civil rights,\u201d Labi said. \u201cThe schoolhouse doors in 2026 don&#8217;t have signs on it that say, \u2018whites only,\u2019 but discrimination is still very prevalent. Black students and other students of color are the ones who bear the brunt of that.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The Associated Press\u2019 education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ap.org\/about\/news-values-and-principles\/\">standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ap.org\/about\/supporting-ap\/\">list<\/a> of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; The Education Department will no longer consider school policies that disproportionately harm one group of students as discriminatory unless the discrimination is intentional, rescinding a decades-long standard for civil rights enforcement. In a rule change announced Thursday, the department said it would remove a number of disparate impact provisions from its regulations related&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/8a6d1124-7e7b-4344-a509-bdb3abb6e932\/wirestory_c3e886b11ec0af0bb85218530b8e3973_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}