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Office for Civil Rights
2000 Annual Report to Congress

OCR Develops Strategies That Work

OCR pursued a balanced enforcement agenda in FY 2000, focusing on collaboration with state and local education authorities, emphasizing prevention of discrimination, and seeking partners in expanding access to quality education. By working collaboratively, we save taxpayer dollars while remaining focused on protecting the rights of students and ensuring their access to high standards and educational excellence.

Promoting a More Collaborative Process

OCR's Case Resolution Manual places primary emphasis on achieving effective change with the objective of resolving a complainant's allegations of discrimination promptly and appropriately. It emphasizes negotiation and other expedited resolution approaches for resolving complaints. Using this approach, OCR has been highly effective in obtaining voluntary resolution agreements to address civil rights concerns without having to forward findings for litigation. In addition, OCR can resolve more complaints with fewer staff, which allows OCR to use more of its resources on targeted proactive activities, such as compliance reviews, monitoring and technical assistance. Activities are chosen that will achieve access to high-quality and high-standards education for the greatest number of students possible.

OCR places great reliance on collaborating with stakeholders to achieve optimal results. For example, OCR has been working collaboratively with a state education agency over the past year to ensure that all students with outstanding abilities have an equal opportunity to access gifted and talented programs offered by school districts in the state. During the course of several investigations, OCR found that screening and identification procedures used by several districts relied on a single criterion for placement of students in gifted and talented programs, which had the effect of reducing the number of minority students admitted to such programs. While the state issued comprehensive guidelines in 1997 to assist school systems in developing procedures that facilitate identification of education needs and appropriate services and provide for equal access for all students, OCR found that many school districts were misinterpreting the provisions of the state guidelines. Working together, OCR and the state identified several strategies to address OCR concerns. During the year, the state invited OCR to participate in its statewide conference for coordinators of gifted and talented programs to provide school districts with information on how to assess their policies and procedures to ensure that all students have equal access to gifted programs. The state issued a memorandum to all school districts clarifying the provisions of the guidelines to ensure that an appropriate, broad-based pool of students is considered for placement in gifted programs.

Partnerships

OCR recognizes that federal, state and local education agencies, parents, students, business leaders and other interested parties share a common goal of equal opportunity and access to high-quality education for all students. OCR uses its experience in educational partnerships with these groups to prevent civil rights problems.

Partnerships also are proving helpful in arriving at effective alternatives to complaints, including educationally sound remedies that increase opportunities for all students. For example, OCR entered into a partnership with a local education agency that included five special education local areas and 19 elementary and secondary education school districts that provide educational services to approximately 250,000 students. During FY 2000, the partnership conducted two workshops on disability issues. Approximately 200 district administrators, school board members, principals, special education directors, Section 504 coordinators, and both special and general education teachers attended the workshops. The goal of the partnership is to improve Section 504 compliance and, as a result, to lower the number of disability complaints received by OCR.

OCR worked with another school district as it sought to strengthen its relationship with parents of English language learners. The district sponsored informal, family-friendly activities in the community to give newcomer parents the opportunity to acquaint themselves with teachers and school staff. Three new parent action committees were formed for Polish bilingual, Russian bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. These committees work with district staff on such issues as improving effective communication with parents of English language learners, staff recruitment, and evaluation of the programs for English language learners. The cooperation between the district and the parent action committees ensures that all stakeholders will have a voice as the district restructures its English language acquisition programs.

Empowering Parents

One of OCR's strategic goals is to empower students and parents to resolve problems of securing equal access to quality education. For example, an OCR enforcement office received a call from a parent whose son was a senior high school football player with diabetes. The student had missed a practice because of an insulin reaction, and the school district invoked a policy requiring a player to sit out the first quarter because of a missed practice. The team was scheduled to play in the state football playoff game on the evening of the day that the parent called OCR. OCR staff helped the parent download information from OCR's Web site and, while not making a finding on the specific issue, OCR explained the requirements of Section 504 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and advised the parent on how to present the information to school authorities and discuss the impact of the policy on a student with a disability. Later that day the parent successfully resolved the issue with the school district. OCR has also encouraged parental involvement in agreements resulting from complaints and compliance reviews. Parental involvement is essential to achieving lasting change by ensuring that positive actions implemented by education institutions continue once OCR is no longer involved.

Monitoring

OCR continues to place increased focus on the monitoring of resolution agreements. This is one of the critical processes to maximize the effectiveness of OCR's resolutions. OCR's most well-crafted resolution agreements will do little good unless OCR monitors their implementation to ensure that change has occurred and that students, in fact, are receiving education benefits. Also, monitoring activities are helping to evaluate not only whether agreements are carried out but also whether barriers to quality education are eliminated and positive impact achieved.

During FY 2000, OCR monitored 2,049 complaint resolution agreements The following examples show major benefits to an individual as well as to an entire class of students when schools and colleges carried out their commitments:

• A student who is mobility impaired was unable to attend his computer class because he had to walk down a flight of steps. There were times when he also missed other classes because the elevator at the high school was not always working. A computer lab was moved to the first floor and the elevator was eventually repaired. The school now uses a stair-climbing device when the elevator is temporarily out of service.
• A school district ended its practice of referring only African American students to the police following in-school incidents. The district now has policies and procedures where all similarly situated students are treated the same.
• A midwestern university that had not provided equitable participation opportunities to female students added two new intercollegiate athletic teams for women and expanded several existing women's teams. This resulted in more than 100 new participation opportunities for women, without eliminating any men's teams. The university also constructed a new ice arena that is now used by both the men's and women's ice hockey teams. The new women's ice hockey team became a charter member of a newly formed NCAA Division I women's ice hockey conference, which began competition during the 1999-2000 school year.
• After implementing new policies to ensure nondiscriminatory disciplinary action and follow-up staff training, a school district lowered the suspension rate of its minority students. The suspension rate of African American males dropped from 42.8 percent to 21.4 percent, and the suspension rate of Hispanic males dropped from 32.5 percent to 15.2 percent. This occurred while the district ensured that school safety and discipline were maintained.
• The number of African American students classified as learning disabled decreased substantially after a district started using pre-referral intervention strategies to assist students who were experiencing difficulties in the regular classroom. Also, the district revised its referral procedures for special education evaluation to ensure consideration of the effects of education and medical history, and of environmental, cultural and economic factors. For students who needed special education services, the district increased access to the regular education setting. Today, 80 percent of students with disabilities are educated in the regular classroom with supplementary aids and services.
• Students with disabilities who are unable to carry a full-time course load are no longer automatically ineligible for a state college tuition grant. The state established standards for granting exceptions to the 12-hour course requirement for grant eligibility.
• More than 1,000 girls now have a fair share of "prime time" night basketball games. This came about after the 37 schools in the interscholastic athletics conference submitted new schedules for the girls junior and varsity basketball teams for the 1999-2000 year.
• A doctoral candidate with a visual impairment was denied necessary educational auxiliary aids over several years but managed to graduate by incurring these costs herself. The university has now reimbursed the student more than $10,000.
• A midwestern university fulfilled its agreement to ensure that African American students are treated no differently than other students in instances of alleged sexual misconduct. This included the university's review of disciplinary cases involving sexual assault and remedying inconsistent treatment. The university developed procedures for campus crime alerts to ensure they are applied fairly and provided diversity training to campus police officers.
• A western school district faced a challenge of providing services to almost 1,500 English language learners, many of whom were recently arrived immigrants, representing 33 distinct language groups. The district developed new programs to meet the education needs of these students. The district also developed a process for evaluating whether its programs for English language learners are successful at teaching students English and providing meaningful participation in the district's education program. School officials believe that the district's partnership with OCR was responsible for the significant improvements in addressing the education needs of its English language learners.

Issue Networks

OCR has established internal networks around specific civil rights compliance issues to provide a forum for building and sharing knowledge and expertise around each issue. The current networks are: access to gifted and talented programs and ability grouping; racial and sexual harassment; minorities and special education; services to English language learners; disability; testing and assessment; elementary and secondary school desegregation; and athletics.

The issue networks facilitate communication among OCR staff working on the same issues and encountering the same questions across the country. They also serve to refine OCR's case resolution tools and approaches, ensure consistency in applying legal standards and to promote knowledge-sharing throughout the agency.

These networks assist in our efforts to increase students' access to quality education. For example, OCR's disability network, in conjunction with the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), sponsored a three-day national conference on students with psychological disabilities in higher education. Approximately 200 individuals representing 120 colleges and universities attended the conference.

Members of the minorities and special education network made a presentation on effective strategies for reducing disproportionate representation of minorities in special education to approximately 30 administrators and special education personnel from large urban school districts, including Chicago, New York City, Houston, Miami-Dade County, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

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