Pages

Monday, July 15, 2024

It's a long time from May to December

Title VI cases have been filed at the Office of Civil Rights, US Dept. of Education in connection with the various campus protests around the country, and including at UCLA. 

Apparently, apart from those specific cases (including at UCLA), a new general policy is being formulated that is due in December, which happens to be after Election Day. Back in May, the Secretary of Education requested more money from Congress for enforcement. From Higher Ed Dive:

...OMB’s regulatory update also shows new deadlines for other education policy areas, including racial discrimination and special education protections. 

The Education Department has set a December 2024 deadline for releasing a proposed Title VI rule on protecting students from discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, in addition to other forms of racial discrimination. The department’s attention to including shared ancestry under Title VI protections predates the latest Israel-Hamas war, but has increased in the wake of it.

“In this area, OCR has received complaints of harassment and assaults directed at Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and other students based on their shared ancestry or ethnicity,” the update says.

Since October 2023 when the Israel-Hamas war began, the department has warned school districts of a growing number of Title VI complaints born out of antisemitic, Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian or anti-Israeli incidents. The high caseload related to these civil rights complaints, handled by the Office for Civil Rights, even contributed to the secretary’s request to Congress for more OCR funding in May...


It's a long time from May to December, and if this news doesn't bring music to your heart, here's a tune:


No comments:

Post a Comment