UPDATE: On November 14, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights dismissed this complaint. See the letter here.
On May 16, 2022, Parents Defending Education filed a complaint against Hudson School District in Hudson, Wisconsin, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint asked OCR to look into possible violations of Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds, and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which bars government bodies, including public schools, from treating people differently because of their race except in rare cases.
In 2020, Hudson hired a consulting firm, Integrated Comprehensive Systems for Equity, to conduct an “equity audit” for $35,750. The firm surveyed and interviewed students and staff and presented its findings to the school board on July 8, 2021. The audit reported racial gaps in discipline, test scores, and enrollment in gifted and Advanced Placement classes.
These gaps could have race-neutral explanations, but Hudson offered none. And by paying for an equity audit, the district suggested that it believed the gaps came from racism inside its own schools. If that is true, it may be breaking federal civil rights law. The complaint asked the Department to investigate.
Read the full complaint and see its evidence below:
