Today as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a Fact Sheet reminding schools of their federal civil rights obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to take prompt and effective action to respond to harassment that creates a hostile environment based on race, color, or national origin.

Congress passed the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held, in Brown v. Board of Education, that legally sanctioned racial segregation of children in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although this year marks 70 years after the Brown decision, and 60 years since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, many millions of students across the United States continue to experience racial isolation and discrimination in schools.

Desegregation was slow in coming in the first years following the Brown decision, and the Civil Rights Act was crucial in providing federal enforcement tools to address the inequities that persisted, and persist, in our schools and colleges. Congress created OCR specifically to enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act guarantee in the nation’s schools, to ensure equal access to education through the vigorous enforcement of Title VI and, later, other federal civil rights laws. Our enforcement experience today confirms ongoing discrimination warranting that vigorous enforcement, including because of increasing reports of harassment based on race, color, and national origin in the nation’s schools.

Today’s fact sheet shares information, again, about how OCR determines the existence of a hostile environment and details schools’ Title VI obligations to address and remedy a hostile environment. The fact sheet also provides hypothetical examples to help schools assess these Title VI obligations, including the requirement to promptly and effectively address alleged acts of discrimination, including harassment. The fact sheet reaffirms, for example, that when any visitor to a campus contributes to a hostile environment the school still has an obligation to respond. Likewise, the fact sheet illustrates how a disciplinary response may be insufficient, without additional prompt and effective action by the school, to redress the effects of a hostile environment for affected persons.

In addition to the fact sheet, OCR has issued other resources to support schools in complying with their obligations under Title VI, including most recently on the 70th anniversary of the Brown decision. These resources are available on our website. For more information or to request technical assistance on the application of Title VI, contact OCR at OCR@ed.gov.

OCR remains steadfastly committed to using all the tools legally available to ensure that education is provided to all, on equal terms. 

Source: U.S. Department of Education