RESOLVED: On November 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights closed this complaint as resolved, finding that “the BIPOC affinity group at CES has been opened to all students regardless of race, color, or national origin.” See the letter here.
On February 14, 2023, Parents Defending Education filed a complaint against Olympia School District in Olympia, Washington, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint claimed the district was breaking Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. It also claimed the district was violating 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.
At Centennial Elementary School, the district ran weekly affinity groups for 4th and 5th graders during the school day. In an email to a parent, the principal wrote that the groups were “limited to students who identify as BIPOC.” Children of other races were shut out of a school-day activity because of their race.
Read the full complaint and see its evidence below:
