U.S. Department of Education bans consideration of race in school discipline policies

This policy shift changes how K-12 schools across the country must manage student discipline, effectively ending federal pressure to address racial disparities in suspension and expulsion rates.

• •The U.S. Department of Education issued new guidance stating that considering race in student discipline is a form of race discrimination.
• •The Department of Education is investigating Fayetteville Public Schools for allegedly using racial identity in disciplinary decisions.
• •The new guidance explicitly reverses previous policies that allowed schools to use discipline data to identify and address racial disparities.
• •The Trump administration's April 2025 executive order, 'Reinstating Common Sense School Discipline Policies,' serves as the basis for the current enforcement shift.
• •OCR head Kimberly Richey stated that previous policies led to schools ignoring student misconduct to avoid appearing to have racial disparities in discipline.
• •In 2014, the Obama administration issued guidance arguing that racial disparities in discipline data were evidence of potential discrimination.
• •Between 2014 and 2018, many school districts shifted toward restorative justice practices, resulting in a drop in suspension rates for Hispanic and Black students.
• •The American Psychological Association previously found no evidence that discipline disparities were caused by differences in student behavior.
• •The Republican 2024 platform pledged to overhaul school discipline standards and advocate for the immediate suspension of violent students.