The End of Racial Balancing in Student Discipline
On August 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance to educational institutions to promote safe and fair school discipline policies, in the form of a Dear Colleague Letter specifying that discipline policies must treat students evenhandedly regardless of race.
This follows the Department’s earlier rule-making that removed disparate impact provisions from its regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The Department argues that prior Obama and Biden-era guidance had effectively pushed schools toward “racial balancing” in discipline. This involved using demographic outcomes alone without evidence of discriminatory intent to find Title VI violations, and coincided with increased and repeated disruptive behavior, more missed school days for bullying and harassment victims, and higher teacher dissatisfaction.
Alongside the new guidance, the Department’s Office for Civil Rights opened Title VI investigations into two districts.
In Fayetteville, Arkansas, teachers were reportedly directed to factor in students’ racial identities when issuing discipline as part of a “restorative justice” effort tied to discipline disproportionality.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, education leaders reportedly criticized race-neutral policies as reflecting systemic “whiteness,” which the Department says appeared to encourage race-conscious discipline decisions.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey framed the move as ending discriminatory practices and restoring neutral and fair discipline systems, tying it to the broader Trump administration push (including a 2025 executive order and a related DOJ rule change) to eliminate disparate-impact liability across civil rights enforcement.
