RESOLVED: On September 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights resolved this complaint. The school changed its website to make clear that any otherwise eligible student can take part in Step Up to STEM, regardless of race. See the letter here.
On June 23, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into this complaint. See the letter here.
On May 3, 2023, Parents Defending Education filed a complaint against the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, North Carolina, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint claimed the school was breaking Title VI, a law that bans race discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. It also claimed the school 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.
The school’s “Step Up to STEM” program was open only to “underrepresented (African American, Hispanic American, and Native American) students.” Students of other races were shut out of a program designed to help students prepare for science and math.
Read the full complaint and see its evidence below:
