Education Dept. Revives Fight Over Race in School Discipline

The U.S. Department of Education has reopened a long-running civil rights dispute over school discipline, issuing new guidance warning school leaders not to consider a student's race when disciplining them — and opening an investigation into Fayetteville Public Schools in Arkansas.

Fayetteville Superintendent John Mulford said the district was notified of the investigation roughly two hours before the department publicly named it in a national announcement. The department's Office for Civil Rights said teachers there "were directed to take students' racial identities into account when issuing discipline" as part of a restorative justice effort to address "the disproportionality of discipline on students of color."

"We're a little shocked at this point and completely in the dark as to what this is even about," Mulford said, adding that the district has worked to make its discipline policy consistent and free of ambiguity in ways he believes align with federal civil rights law.

The move revives a fight dating to 2014, when the Obama administration's Office for Civil Rights, led by Catherine Lhamon, warned schools that disproportionate discipline rates for students of color could indicate discrimination. At the time, Black students made up 15% of enrollment but 35% of students suspended once and 44% suspended more than once, federal data showed. An American Psychological Association task force found no evidence the disparities reflected differences in behavior, pointing instead to factors like inconsistent teacher training.

After the 2014 guidance, many districts shifted toward alternatives to suspension, including restorative justice practices. By 2018, the share of students suspended at least once had dropped from 5.6% to 4.7%, NPR reported, with notable declines among Hispanic and Black students.

The guidance drew conservative criticism, with commentator Max Eden — who later joined the second Trump administration — arguing districts were being presumed guilty based on statistics and that relaxed discipline may have made classrooms more disruptive. The first Trump administration rescinded the guidance in 2018; Lhamon reinstated similar guidance in 2023 under President Biden. The debate intensified further amid a pandemic-era rise in classroom disruptions.