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• Feds issue guidance on athletic activities counted for Title IX compliance [HTML 3,042kb]
  The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued guidance regarding intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic activities that can be counted for the purpose of Title IX compliance.
  
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund reacts to OCR guidance letter [HTML 2,631kb]
  OCR “Dear Colleague” letter has drawn criticism from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF), which believes OCR's interpretation of PICS is inaccurate and has issued its own statement of the legal standards it believes applicable to elementary and secondary schools.
  
• Arizona appeals Ninth Circuit ruling on ELL students to U.S. Supreme Court [HTML 2,305kb]
  Education Week reports that the Arizona legislature has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to review the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Flores v. Arizona rejecting the state legislature’s 2006 effort to comply with an eight year old U.S. District Court order for adequate funding of English Language Learner (ELL) programs.
  
• Philadelphia all boys charter school renews single-sex school debate [HTML 2,047kb]
  USA Today reports that Boys' Latin of Philadelphia, one of the city's newer charter schools, has begun its second year, despite huge initial opposition to it single-sex program.
  
• Lawsuit challenges Illinois district’s race-neutral student assignments [HTML 7,310kb]
  In the wake of a ruling last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, large, ethnically diverse school districts are now finding themselves in uncharted waters, suburban Chicago’s Daily Herald reports.
  
• California district’s schools divided along racial lines [HTML 3,823kb]
  The Los Angeles Times reports that the racial makeup of San Juan Capistrano’s schools is either predominantly white or Latino, even where schools are separated by a distance no longer than athletic field
  
• Pennsylvania districts accused of improper enrollment requirements [HTML 2,568kb]
  According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Education Law Center (ELC), a nonprofit advocacy group, charges that local school districts in Pennsylvania are turning away students because they are not adhering to state laws regarding enrollment.
  
• Study finds corporal punishment meted out unevenly [HTML 5,241kb]
  According to the Associated Press, a joint study by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, using U.S. Department of Education data, has found that while paddling of students has been declining, racial disparity persists where it still is used.
  
• Family of murdered gay student sues California school district [HTML 2,333kb]
  The Ventura County Star reports that the family of a slain Oxnard, California eighth-grader is seeking unspecified damages in injury claims filed against the Hueneme School District and the County of Ventura.
  
• N.Y. anti-bullying legislation would include sexual orientation [HTML 1,565kb]
  A bill has been introduced in the New York Senate that would ban bullying in public schools, including harassment based on sexual orientation.
  
• Federal court orders Texas to improve ELL programs [HTML 4,065kb]
  According to Education Week, a U.S. district court in Texas has reversed its 2007 ruling that Texas was adequately educating its English language learners (ELL). The court’s latest ruling orders the state to revamp its ELL programs for grades 7-12 and improve monitoring of ELL programs for all grades by the 2009-10 school year.
  
• Virginia court upholds school district’s redistricting plan [HTML 3,304kb]
  The Fairfax County Times reports that a Virginia state court has ruled that the Fairfax County School Board acted within its authority when it adopt a controversial school redistricting plan.
  
• EEOC issues guidance on religious discrimination in the workplace [HTML 1,750kb]
  Citing changing demographics and a steady increase in complaints from people of faith, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last week released an updated compliance manual on religious discrimination in the workplace, USA TODAY reports.
  
• Dallas board to discuss discrimination suit [HTML 2,241kb]
  According to the Dallas Morning News, the board of trustees for the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) is planning to meet in a closed session to discuss a lawsuit filed in federal court that alleges the district provides inferior programs and facilities to black and lower-income students.
  
• Science is becoming new focus of federal Title IX enforcement [HTML 3,961kb]
  According to the New York Times, although federal agencies’ Title IX enforcement efforts traditionally have been limited almost exclusively to sports, those agencies have found a new target in the field of science.
  
• Oregon ballot initiative seeks two-year cap on ELL student native language instruction [HTML 2,724kb]
  Education Week reports that supporters of a proposed Oregon ballot initiative that limits to two years the time that English-language learners can receive instruction in their native languages or take English-as-a-second-language (ESL) classes have gathered enough signatures to put the measure up for a statewide vote.
  
• S.C. school board requires parental permission to join student groups [HTML 2,797kb]
  WIS News 10 in Columbia, South Carolina, reports that after students in Richard-Lexington District Five in Irmo may form non-academic clubs next year, but before students may join any such group they will have to obtain their parents’ permission.
  
• Connecticut school board divided over district’s plan on racial imbalance [HTML 3,793kb]
  The Hartford Courant reports that the only two minority members of the Manchester, Connecticut school board are opposing the district’s plan to address “racial imbalance” in its schools, attributing their opposition to years of inaction by the board and the superintendent to address the test score gap between white and minority students—a gap that could be partially attributed to the district's racially imbalanced elementary schools.
  
• Supreme Court to decide whether Title IX is exclusive remedy for sex harassment [HTML 2,868kb]
  Education Week reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted review in Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee, No. 07-1125, a case that raises the question of whether Title IX provides the exclusive legal remedy for cases of sex discrimination in public schools.
  
• Seattle schools move toward resegregation [HTML 6,577kb]
  Nearly three decades after Seattle Public Schools integrated almost all its schools through busing, that racial balance is long gone. Today, a total of 30 schools—close to a third of the district's buildings—have nonwhite populations that far exceed the district's average of 58%.
  
• Inclusion of gay couples in New Mexico school’s yearbook draws criticism [HTML 3,445kb]
  Clovis High School students are defending their inclusion of photos and interviews with gay couples in the yearbook after criticism by a former New Mexico lieutenant governor and Christian groups.
  
• Class action suit accuses Alabama district of systemic race discrimination [HTML 3,239kb]
  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Alabama have filed a complaint in a class-action lawsuit accusing Monroe County school officials with subjecting African American students at Monroeville Junior High School to racial epithets and slurs, racially-motivated discipline, and racially segregated classrooms, practices that deny African American students their constitutional right to equal educational opportunities.
  
• NSBA submits amicus brief in Title VII employment discrimination case [HTML 2,920kb]
  NSBA has submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the employer in the case of Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn., No. 06-1595. In 2002, Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn., school officials contacted Vicky Crawford as part of their investigation into sexual misconduct charges against Gene Hughes, the school district's director of employee relations.
  
• Report claims NCLB fails struggling Asian-American pupils [HTML 3,630kb]
  Schools are failing to identify struggling Asian-American students under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and to get them the academic interventions they need, a report says.
  
• Judge approves Louisiana district’s desegregation plan [HTML 2,101kb]
  After rejecting the original version two months ago, a federal judge Wednesday agreed to sign a revised consent order that will let the Jefferson Parish school system carry out a district-wide desegregation plan and eventually end a decades-long period of federal supervision.
  
• ACLU challenges Kentucky district’s single-sex classrooms [HTML 3,160kb]
  The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit in federal court charging segregating classes by gender at the Breckinridge County (KY) Middle School is illegal and discriminatory.
  
• Immigration arrests cause panic in California schools [HTML 4,117kb]
  Immigration arrests at homes in Berkeley and Oakland sent a wave of panic among parents in both cities, as authorities mistakenly believed immigration agents were raiding schools.
  
• Florida legislature passes anti-bullying law [HTML 1,430kb]
  The Florida legislature has passed an anti-bullying law entitled the Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act, which requires schools to adopt policies to discourage bullying in person and online or risk losing state funding.
  
• Department of Homeland Security answers court ruling with proposed regulations for employers on immigration and “no match” letters [HTML 2,116kb]
  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is proposing to amend its regulations that provide a "safe harbor" from liability under the Immigration and Nationality Act for employers who follow certain procedures after receiving a "no-match letter" from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
  
• Virginia county’s immigration crackdown affects nearby school districts [HTML 3,149kb]
  Hundreds of foreign-born families have pulled their children from Prince William County public schools and enrolled them in nearby Fairfax County, Arlington County and Alexandria since the start of the school year, imposing a new financial burden on those inner suburbs in a time of lean budgets.
  
• PA district settles suit over minority representation on school board [HTML 4,530kb]
  The Bethlehem Area School Board, in a 9-0 vote, has approved a settlement agreement to a 2006 voters' rights lawsuit that, if accepted, by a federal judge, will change the way voters elect school directors, with the overall goal of helping a Hispanic win a seat on the board, which is all non-Hispanic whites.
  
• NSBA submitted amicus brief in Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory [HTML 2,573kb]
  NSBA has submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, No. 06-1505. The case involves a challenge to an employer’s involuntary reduction in force (RIF) alleging that the action violated the federal Age Discrimination in Employment ACT (ADEA) because it had an unjustified disparate impact on older employees.
  
• Equal protection “class of one” claims [HTML 1,809kb]
  NSBA has filed an amicus brief in Engquist v. Oregon Dept. of Agriculture, No. 07-474, a case before the U.S. Supreme Court presenting the question of whether a public employee can bring a “class of one” equal protection claim against the employer.
  
• Virginia school board’s student behavioral study raises concerns [HTML 3,183kb]
  The Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously to postpone a decision on whether to accept a school system report that showed racial and ethnic gaps in certain measures of achievement in character education.
  
• Court refuses to reopen suit against Lynn, Mass. desegregation plan [HTML 2,768kb]
  One day after a U.S. District Court judge denied a request by attorneys to reopen a lawsuit brought by parents against the City of Lynn for its voluntary school desegregation plan, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Superintendent Nicholas Kostan praised the judge's ruling.
  
• Latest Arizona ELL funding bill becomes law without gov’s signature [HTML 4,055kb]
  Gov. Janet Napolitano let a bill that allocates an additional $40 million for English instruction become law without her signature Monday, expressing concern that the state still has unfinished business on the matter.
  
• Court hits Michigan athletic association with $7 million in legal fees [HTML 3,382kb]
  The other shoe has dropped in the Communities for Equity (CFE) lawsuit against the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA). Now the question is: How will the MHSAA pay for it?
  
• Parent group argues Dillon's Rule bars Virginia school boards from considering socioeconomic diversity or instructional effectiveness in drawing attendance zones [HTML 4,340kb]
  Last week’s Legal Clips included an excerpt, now at the first link below, of a Washington Post article about a lawsuit by some parents in Virginia’s Fairfax County over the school board’s redrawing of high school attendance zones.
  
• Connecticut reaches tentative settlement in landmark deseg case [HTML 4,555kb]
  Schools in Hartford and 22 of its suburbs would be encouraged to open more classroom seats to children from outside their neighborhoods in order to increase racial diversity, under a tentative settlement reached Friday in a decades-old desegregation case.
  
• Parents sue over Virginia board’s decision to redraw attendance zones [HTML 1,526kb]
  A parent group from western Fairfax County announced that it is seeking a legal order to reverse a School Board decision to reroute thousands of students among five high schools in coming years.
  
• Georgia county drops plans for single-sex schools [HTML 1,419kb]
  Greene County school officials have scrapped a controversial plan to become the country's first school district entirely separated by gender. But county schools may still wind up with some single-gender classes.
  
• Gay student club holds forums at Minnesota school re. court rulings [HTML 2,495kb]
  In the first of two forums, attended by more than 50 students and community members, members of a student group at Maple Grove Senior High School known as Straights and Gays for Equality (SAGE) tried to clarify their mission of drawing attention to and fighting harassment against gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual students.
  
• ACLU sues Florida district over low graduation rates [HTML 5,399kb]
  Low graduation rates in Palm Beach County show the school district has failed its students, especially minority children, by not providing a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality education," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
  
• Federal judge rejects Louisiana school district’s desegregation plan [HTML 4,527kb]
  In an unexpected twist, a federal judge has refused to sign a controversial proposed consent decree that would have helped resolve a decades-old desegregation suit in the Jefferson Parish public school system, saying that the document failed to provide a "narrowly tailored solution" to fully desegregate the district and root out pockets of racial inequality.
  
• New York federal court lifts 1974 desegregation order [HTML 2,471kb]
  A federal judge on Friday lifted a 1974 desegregation order for a Brooklyn middle school, effectively eliminating racial quotas that had been in place at Mark Twain Intermediate School for more than three decades.
  
• Louisiana school board approves federal desegregation plan [HTML 3,831kb]
  After an hour of deliberation, the Jefferson Parish School Board unanimously approved a controversial federal desegregation order that aims to stamp out racial inequalities but touched off a firestorm among parents, who turned out in droves this week to protest proposed redistricting changes and a stricter student transfer policy.
  
• Georgia county plans to convert to single-sex schools district wide [HTML 3,606kb]
  All of Greene County's regular public school students will be separated by gender starting next fall, a move educators hope will improve rock-bottom test scores and reduce teen pregnancy and discipline rates in the small, rural system.
  
• Dismissal of Title VII and ADA cases [HTML 1,206kb]
  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is amending its procedural regulations to eliminate three bases for dismissing charges under Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  
• Hawai'i schools violating law on homeless students [HTML 3,340kb]
  U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor, in an oral ruling, has sided with three homeless families who sued the state for allegedly failing to provide them an adequate education as required under federal law.
  
• Jefferson County, Ky. interim student assignment plan challenged [HTML 2,913kb]
  The Louisville lawyer who successfully challenged Jefferson County's school desegregation policy is now challenging the district's interim plan, saying it illegally uses race to assign students.
  
• Wake County, N.C. plans to reassign over 6,000 students next fall [HTML 4,631kb]
  Despite last-minute appeals by parents, the Wake County school board didn't make major changes to a controversial reassignment plan that will move 6,464 elementary students to different schools this fall.
  
• Supreme Court to hear "class of one" equal protection case [HTML 2,492kb]
  The U.S. Supreme Court has granted review in Engquist v. Oregon Dept. of Agriculture, No. 07-474, an appeal of a ruling, below, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that rejected a “class of one” equal protection claim by a former public employee.
  
• Supreme Court questions Bush administration on New York teacher-certification exam [HTML 3,524kb]
  The U.S. Supreme Court is asking the Bush administration for its views on a long-running lawsuit that contends a teacher-certification exam used by New York state has a disparate impact on black and Latino teachers in the New York City school system.
  
• Religious liberties group seeks to stop California law over gender definition [HTML 1,854kb]
  A religious liberties group has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a state law that goes into effect next year which changes the way gender is defined in California schools.
  
• Beaumont Independent School District accused of racial discrimination [HTML 3,482kb]
  The Beaumont Independent School District in Texas could be facing a lawsuit depending on its response to a letter accusing it of racial discrimination.
  
• Pitt County Schools seeks clarification of desegregation orders from court [HTML 4,484kb]
  Pitt County Schools (PCS) in North Carolina is preparing to go to court to sort out racial requirements affecting the district for more than 30 years. The district will seek clarification of two desegregation orders issue in the 1970s.
  
• Cincinnati Public Schools to remove race as a factor in magnet school enrollment [HTML 4,426kb]
  A decision by the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) school board to end a 32-year-old integration policy by removing race as a factor in magnet school enrollment decisions will have relatively little tangible effect, district officials insist, despite concerns by parents that the decision could eat away at diversity.
  
• Voters approve transfer of schools from Kansas City to Independence [HTML 4,850kb]
  Families and property owners in west Independence, Missouri have won their long-sought freedom from the Kansas City School District. Voters in both districts overwhelmingly approved measures to move seven schools from the Kansas City district into the Independence district.
  
• Massachusetts' voluntary desegregation program should be able to continue its mission [HTML 3,107kb]
  METCO, Massachusetts’ voluntary 41-year-old program in which inner city minorities are bused to wealthier suburban school districts, should be able to pursue its original mission despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that appeared to jeopardize school integration efforts across the country, a state Department of Education attorney has said.
  
• Magnet Schools Assistance Program challenged by student assignment ruling [HTML 5,658kb]
  When the U.S. Supreme Court in late June issued a major decision on whether school districts may consider race when assigning students to school, it made it much more challenging for the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Magnet Schools Assistance Program, whose central goal is to help desegregate schools, to take race into account.
  
• Failure of DREAM Act in Senate dashes best chance of immigration legislation [HTML 3,058kb]
  The DREAM Act has failed in the U.S. Senate, dashing the latest and best chance Congress had to pass immigration legislation. The bill would have granted conditional legal status to illegal immigrants younger than 30 who completed two years of higher education or served in the military.
  
• Milton, Massachusetts wrestles with student assignment issues [HTML 4,545kb]
  Five decades ago, federal courts began forcing reluctant districts to use race-based assignments to integrate schools. But in June, a bitterly divided Supreme Court reversed course, concluding that two race-based enrollment plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle were unconstitutional.
  
• African-American teacher challenges teacher assignment policy as discriminatory [HTML 4,223kb]
  An African-American Louisville, Kentucky teacher in the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) has sued the school district in federal court, challenging the teacher assignment policy as discriminatory.
  
• Jena Six offers tough lessons for administrators on racial tensions [HTML 7,648kb]
  The case of the “Jena Six” offers tough lessons for principals and other administrators who must grapple with racial tensions in their schools. According to experts on race relations, principals and teachers can head off such incidents by knowing the sources of conflict and acting to defuse them.
  
• Wake County relaxes its student diversity policy [HTML 3,278kb]
  North Carolina’s Wake County is relaxing its nationally recognized student diversity policy because schools are having a difficult time meeting the plan’s goals.
  
• Black parents battle school rezoning plan in Tuscaloosa, Alabama [HTML 6,310kb]
  Black parents are battling a school rezoning plan in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, calling it resegregation. The results of the plan: all but a handful of the hundreds of students required to move this fall were black—and many were sent to virtually all-black, low-performing schools.
  
• School districts with large numbers of immigrant students craft new policies [HTML 3,718kb]
  Amid stepped-up federal efforts to curb illegal immigration, some school districts with large numbers of immigrant students are crafting new policies intended to balance cooperation with federal officials, protection of student privacy, and the safety of students during enforcement operations.
  
• Public schools are becoming more racially segregated [HTML 3,119kb]
  Public schools in the United States are becoming more racially segregated and the trend is likely to accelerate because of a Supreme Court decision in June, according to recent report a report by the Civil Rights Project of the University of California in Los Angeles.
  
• Law firm seeks nearly $1.8 million in fees from Seattle Public Schools [HTML 2,166kb]
  The law firm that represented parents in their case against Seattle Public Schools' race-based admissions policy before the U.S. Supreme Court is seeking nearly $1.8 million in fees from the school district.
  
• Judge vacates conviction against teen involved in racially charged incident [HTML 4,240kb]
  A state judge in Louisiana has vacated one of two convictions against a teen involved in a violent, racially charged incident at a school in the town of Jena that left another teen hospitalized.
  
• Massachusetts school districts maintain desegregation plans [HTML 4,374kb]
  Nearly two-dozen Massachusetts school districts with desegregation plans similar to those struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court have made few if any changes to their policies as they enter the new school year.
  
• Employment discrimination against caregivers [HTML 1,340kb]
  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued enforcement guidance on the unlawful disparate treatment of workers who have caregiving responsibilities.
  
• Philadelphia School District removes Gay and Lesbian History Month from calendar [HTML 2,866kb]
  Having been hit with a barrage of complaints, some of which “bordered on terroristic threats,” the Philadelphia School District has removed recognition of Gay and Lesbian History Month from its 2007-08 school calendar.
  
• Almost two-thirds of Louisiana schools still under court-supervised desegregation [HTML 7,348kb]
  Across Louisiana, almost two-thirds of all school districts still fall under federal court supervision to ensure a racial mix in schools, 43 years after the first desegregation case in the state was brought.
  
• Lawyer requests that Jefferson County school officials be held in contempt [HTML 2,819kb]
  In a case stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision that rejected the use of race in assigning students to Louisville schools, a lawyer's request that Jefferson County school officials be held in contempt and put in jail has been turned down, before school district lawyers even responded to the request.
  
• Connecticut legislature fails to ratify settlement to desegregate Hartford schools [HTML 2,557kb]
  The Connecticut legislature has adjourned without voting on the latest settlement agreement designed to desegregate Hartford schools.
  
• Jefferson County Board of Education to create new student-assignment policy [HTML 3,565kb]
  Kentucky’s Jefferson County Board of Education has voted unanimously to approve a plan that it hopes will help create a new student-assignment policy in time for the 2009-10 school year.
  
• Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity officials discuss future of voluntary desegregation system [HTML 2,600kb]
  In the shadow of the Supreme Court’s school race and student assignment ruling and the legal challenge to Lynn School Committee’s student assignment plan, Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (Metco) officials have called an emergency meeting to discuss the future of their voluntary desegregation system.
  
• Parents challenge race based student assignment plan in Lynn, Massachusetts [HTML 4,676kb]
  In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the Seattle, Washington and the Jefferson County, Kentucky race conscious student assignment plans, a group of Lynn, Massachusetts parents have filed a motion in federal district court to reopen their case challenging Lynn’s race based student assignment plan.
  
• Immigration raids cause unexpected problem for schools [HTML 5,218kb]
  Immigration raids at many employers are causing an unexpected new problem for public schools.
  
• Seattle School District hopes to roll out new student-assignment plan [HTML 3,011kb]
  By 2008, the Seattle School District hopes to roll out a new student-assignment plan to replace one officials say is too complicated and too expensive and leaves too many students in poorly performing schools.
  
• White parents support embattled Little Rock superintendent [HTML 4,140kb]
  Fifty years after the epic desegregation struggle in Little Rock, Arkansas, the school district is still riven by racial conflict. In the latest clash, white parents pack school board meetings to support the embattled superintendent, Roy Brooks, who is black.
  
• Iowa House of Representatives approves anti-bullying bill [HTML 1,838kb]
  The Iowa House of Representatives has approved an anti-bullying bill that requires public and private schools to have policies by Sept. 1, 2007 that prevent and punish bullying or harassment of any student.
  
• Single-sex Programs [HTML 1,346kb]
• Iowa senate approves bill that would prohibit bullying in schools [HTML 1,455kb]
  In a 36-14 vote, the Iowa senate has approved a bill that would prohibit bullying in schools. The bill will now go to the state house for debate.
  
• Oshkosh, Wisconsin, school district puts plans to reconfigure schools on hold [HTML 3,372kb]
  The Oshkosh, Wisconsin, school district is putting its plans to reconfigure its schools on hold until Superintendent Ron Heilmann, and the two teams charged with assisting him to develop the plan, can address issues of social and economic disparities at the district’s two high schools.
  
• Schools send cheerleaders to girls' basketball games following a discrimination complaint [HTML 3,829kb]
  Following a federal Title IX discrimination complaint by the parent of a female basketball player in Johnson City, New York, 14 area high schools have begun sending cheerleaders to girls’ games on the same basis as to boys’ games.
  
• Birmingham Board of Education settles with coach in Title IX whistle-blower case [HTML 2,815kb]
  The Birmingham (Ala.) Board of Education has agreed to a settlement with Roderick Jackson, a high school girls basketball coach whose Supreme Court case established that schools can't retaliate against whistle-blowers in Title IX cases.
  
• School board votes to stop using race as a factor in student assignment [HTML 2,096kb]
  School board trustees in California’s Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) have voted to stop using students' race to determine where they will go to school.
  
• Supreme Court hears oral arguments in school integration cases [HTML 7,280kb]
  The U.S. Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in two cases involving voluntary public school integration plans, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, Docket No. 05-908, and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, Docket No. 05-915.
  
• Florida student sues principal and school board for failing to allow GSA club to meet [HTML 3,542kb]
  A Florida high school senior and the club she helped form to promote tolerance of lesbians and gay men has sued her school principal and the Okeechobee County School Board, claiming they wrongfully prohibited the club from meeting on school grounds.
  
• New Jersey boy seeks to blame school administrators for homophobic harassment by classmates [HTML 3,830kb]
  A New Jersey boy who contends that for years he was the victim of homophobic harassment by classmates has brought his case to the state supreme court, seeking to place the blame for the torment on school administrators.
  
• Coalition challenges in court a Michigan ballot measure barring “preferential treatment” for women and minorities in university admissions [HTML 3,383kb]
  Just days after Michigan voters approved a ballot measure to bar “preferential treatment” for women and minorities in university admissions and state programs, a coalition of civil rights and labor advocates and students has launched a court challenge seeking to prevent it from taking effect.
  
• Department of Education publishes final Title IX regulations encouraging single-sex schools and classes [HTML 4,376kb]
  The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has published final regulations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to expand flexibility to offer single-sex schools, classes, and extracurricular activities in nonvocational elementary and secondary schools.
  
• Alabama district requests end to 35 year old court order to bus in African-American students [HTML 2,916kb]
  Vestavia Hills School District (VHSD) in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, has filed a request to end its 35 year old federal court order requiring the district to bus in African-American students from the Oxmoor Valley section of Birmingham.
  
• Philadelphia Public Schools stands by decision to recognize Gay and Lesbian History Month [HTML 1,531kb]
  Even in the face of strong opposition from some segments of the community, Philadelphia Public Schools intends to stand by its decision to recognize Gay and Lesbian History Month on the school district’s official calendars.
  
• Pittsburgh Public Schools settles racial discrimination lawsuit after 14 years [HTML 2,455kb]
  After 14 years, Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by Advocates for African-American Students (AAAS) on behalf of a group of parents and educators.
  
• Racial resegregation is likely in some Pinellas County, Florida schools [HTML 2,418kb]
  Racial resegregation is likely in some Pinellas County, Florida schools, when race ratios are lifted at the end of this academic year. Based on the preferences of parents who applied for school choice at the kindergarten, sixth-, and ninth-grade levels, without the existing rules requiring desegregation, some schools and some grades would be predominantly black.
  
• Group sues school district over use of race in student assignment; education coalition urges Supreme Court to uphold local diversity efforts [HTML 4,132kb]
  The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) has filed suit on behalf of the American Civil Rights Foundation (ACRF) in a California state court against Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD), alleging the district’s use of race in assigning students to schools violates California’s Proposition 209 ban on racial preferences in public school admissions. Meanwhile, a broad education coalition led by NSBA has filed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold student diversity efforts by local school boards.
  
• Philadelphia Public Schools receives complaints for recognizing Gay and Lesbian History Month [HTML 1,556kb]
  Philadelphia Public Schools (PPS) has received about 120 complaints for recognizing Gay and Lesbian History Month on its school calendars.
  
• Nebraska court blocks state law dividing Omaha public schools into racially identifiable districts [HTML 2,843kb]
  A Nebraska state court has blocked implementation of a Nebraska law that divides Omaha’s public schools into three separate racially and ethnically identifiable school districts.
  
• EEOC proposed amending a regulation under ADEA to reflect U.S. Supreme Court decision [HTML 1,727kb]
  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has proposed amending a regulation under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision interpreting the Act to permit employers to favor older workers because of age.