As more and more districts consider school closures to cut costs, civil rights groups want guardrails to ensure students of color don't bear the brunt of those decisions.
They called on the U.S. Department of Education to draw a line for civil rights by issuing guidance on when school closures violate federal civil rights law by imposing an undue burden on students or students from racial or ethnic minority groups. I have a disability.
“Research on the lived experiences of students and families with school closures and neighborhood schools has overwhelmingly shown that school closures are harmful, not beneficial, to students and their families,” the May 30 letter to federal agencies said. Yes. It came from two civil rights organizations: the Advancement Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Even if districts target school closures on a racially neutral basis, their decisions may violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Disabilities Rights Act, which prohibit racial discrimination in schools, the letter said. It was sent after a meeting with Ministry of Education officials.
Districts could have disparate impacts if they close elementary schools with disproportionately high enrollments of black students, forcing displaced children to travel farther than their peers to get to school, the groups argued. And choosing a school based on factors like the age of the building can layer new harms on top of historical patterns of funding inequality and residential segregation, said Katherine Dunn, director of the Learning Opportunities Program at the Advancement Project.
“These factors that we are looking at are [districts consider]— Facility conditions, school utilization, school enrollment — these factors are symptoms of disinvestment that need to be criticized,” Dunn said.
Budget issues spark discussion of school closures
Civil rights groups have long expressed concerns about which schools are closed and who has a say in those decisions. The Chicago area closed 50 schools in 2013, sparking months of protests and political organizing that led to the displacement of 17,000 students and the removal of community anchors from the city's neighborhoods. Lawmakers then temporarily froze the region's ability to close campuses.
But a broader, nationwide wave of closures is imminent, threatening to overwhelm national racial justice organizations that support local advocates organizing against the closures.
The latest call to action comes as districts brace for a perfect storm of financial challenges, including declining enrollment, inflation and a September spending deadline for an unprecedented infusion of federal COVID-19 aid. Together, they have led many school districts to consider closing campuses and reducing staff.
Through an informal survey of news reports, the Progress Project tracked at least 65 school districts with schools scheduled to close before the 2024-25 school year. And the organization expects these discussions to accelerate in the coming years. At least 21 regions have begun facility audits and perimeter studies, which often precede closures.
The group has issued a toolkit that helps communities and parent groups identify “yellow flags” — signs that a district may soon begin discussions about a closure — often guided by a consultant's fast-paced schedule, Dunn said. Even if these groups file federal civil rights lawsuits, once a complaint is filed, the district's decision is often finalized faster than it takes OCR to investigate, and the school is closed, she said.
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Civil rights guidelines are non-binding federal documents that notify school districts of factors that may lead to investigations or legal complaints, citing court precedent to support the Department's interpretation of federal law.
California considers equity in closure decisions.
The group's letter calls for guidance that reflects the “equity impact analysis” requirement adopted by California lawmakers in 2023. Consider student demographics, environmental factors such as transportation, changing transportation needs of refugee students, and ongoing access to special programs.
The state law came after civil rights activists protested plans to close schools in the Oakland area, with some going on hunger strike. In January, the state Department of Justice agreed that the closure plan, which has since been halted, “will disproportionately affect black and low-income elementary school students and students with special needs who attend special classes.”
Parents, teachers and activists have long argued that school closures have a negative impact on students of color and low-income students.
After analyzing federal data on enrollment and school closures from 2000 to 2018.Stanford University researchers found that majority-black schools were about three times more likely to close than schools with fewer black students. This was true even when taking into account common reasons for closures, such as declining enrollment and declining student test scores.
“Race appears to be a strong predictor of which schools close, and traditional explanations for closures cannot account for such differences,” said Francis A. Pearman, assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He authored the unpublished study, told Education Week in November. “Whether intentional or not, this is happening, and we need to be very careful about the processes that govern closures to ensure that these processes themselves are fair.”
How federal investigators interrogate school closures
In past investigations of school closures, OCR has applied a three-part analysis to assess differential effects.
- Do ostensibly neutral policies have disproportionate and detrimental effects on students of specific racial or ethnic groups?
- Is the policy justified by the need to achieve important, non-discriminatory educational goals?
- Has the district considered alternative measures to mitigate disparate impacts?
For example, a 2022 study of the Huntington Beach, California, area concluded that the closure of one elementary school had no impact on others.Even though the school enrolled a disproportionately large number of Latino students compared to the rest of the district's schools.
Investigators concluded that the district's standards, which took into account declining enrollment and the presence of early childhood centers on other campuses, were not racially discriminatory. They concluded that the decision met the “important educational goal” of balancing the district's budget. And although many of the displaced Latino students had to walk up to two miles to get to their new schools, investigators did not consider that an “undue burden” because many of their peers at other elementary schools walked similar distances.
Inspectors flagged the district for insufficient communication with Spanish-speaking parents during public feedback sessions about the school closure process, which administrators agreed to address in future outreach efforts.
Whether or not federal officials issue new guidance on the issue, Dunn said he hopes local leaders will read the group's letter and see how their decision is fair and how harm can be minimized.
And district leaders need to make sure the closure decision isn't a foregone conclusion before seeking community input, she said.
Affected communities “are not confused by the civil rights issues raised by these decisions,” Dunn said. “They want someone with teeth to step in and name it for what it is.”