The Trump administration is scaling back federal tools that have long been used to identify racial discrimination in US schools, including policies focused on unequal outcomes even when there is no evidence of deliberate bias.
For decades, federal civil rights enforcement allowed officials to examine whether seemingly neutral policies disproportionately affected particular racial groups, an approach known as “disparate impact.”
But this summer, the Education Department withdrew rules that allowed school districts to assess potential discrimination through racial disparities in areas such as access to advanced courses.
Officials have also warned schools against considering race when setting disciplinary policies, even when suspensions and expulsions disproportionately affect one group.
The Justice Department is separately moving to end longstanding school desegregation cases. It recently said courts had terminated more than 50 desegregation decrees since President Donald Trump returned to office, with more dismissal requests pending.
Previous administrations used such orders to address disparities involving school facilities, advanced classes and disciplinary practices.
The administration argues that policies designed to produce more equal outcomes can themselves result in racial discrimination.
“The Obama and Biden Administrations weaponized disparate impact by effectively coercing schools to discipline students differently based on race,” Education Department spokesperson Sabin Sidney said, arguing the approach contributed to unsafe classrooms and harmed learning.
Critics say abandoning disparate-impact enforcement makes it harder to identify discrimination when policies do not explicitly mention race.
“When they talk about returning it to the states and making America great again, they’re talking about returning to how it was before 1954,” when school segregation was legal, Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia said.
Trump accelerated the shift in May 2025 by directing federal agencies to stop using disparate-impact analysis. In schools, the approach had frequently been applied to suspensions, expulsions and referrals to law enforcement.
Federal and state data have shown that Black students are disciplined and removed from classrooms at higher rates than their peers.
One federal investigation opened in 2021 examined allegations that Black male students with disabilities in Denver Public Schools were disproportionately removed from classrooms. The federal investigation stalled after Trump returned to office, although state authorities later found civil rights violations and ordered additional training.
“The federal government has chosen to close its eyes to that way of understanding discrimination,” said Catherine Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s civil rights office under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
The administration is also seeking to end decades-old desegregation orders, particularly across the South, arguing that continued federal oversight is no longer necessary in many districts.
Civil rights lawyers contend that courts should first determine whether the lingering effects of segregation — including disparities in facilities, funding and extracurricular programs — have been eliminated.
In January, a federal court granted a request from the Justice Department and Louisiana’s DeSoto Parish School Board to end the district’s desegregation order.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill welcomed the decision, saying that after 60 years of federal oversight, elected school board members had regained their full authority.
Months later, the district changed a transfer program that had allowed students to leave racially isolated schools with transportation provided. It stopped accepting new applications and said existing participants would eventually have to return to their zoned schools.
