UPDATE: On November 22, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights transferred this complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which handles discrimination in hiring and employment. See the letter here.
On June 4, 2024, Parents Defending Education filed a complaint against Kingston City School District in Kingston, New York, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint claims the district is breaking Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. It also claims the district is 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.
Kingston’s Department of Diversity says one of its main goals is to “implement a plan for hiring staff to proportionately reflect our student body.” In other words, the district wants to hire teachers based on race. The district also runs programs for educators that only teachers of certain races can join. Teachers outside the district’s target racial groups can lose out on jobs and opportunities.
Defending Education urges the government to investigate every claim in its complaint, fix the district’s illegal policies and practices, and order the right remedies.
Read the full complaint and its evidence below:
