US tells schools not to alter discipline policies to reduce racial disparities

Daily Maverick · 🇿🇦 public South Africa · Aug 20, 2026 · 279 words · By Reuters

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What to know about US tells schools not to alter discipline policies to reduce racial disparities

By Kanishka Singh Federal civil rights data has shown Black students are disciplined at disproportionately high rates.

Claims checked 9

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center80%

Right20%

5 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

By Kanishka Singh Federal civil rights data has shown Black students are disciplined at disproportionately high rates.

Why it matters

An Education Department report released in 2023 found Black public preschool children received out-of-school suspensions at a rate nearly twice their enrollment.

Common ground

The new guidance says schools cannot modify discipline policies simply to reduce such racial disparities.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: US tells schools not to alter discipline policies to reduce racial disparities?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that President Donald Trump has acted against diversity initiatives, which he calls discriminatory against white people and males?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-20-us-tells-schools-not-to-alter…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 9 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 7

info Single Source 1

help Insufficient Evidence 1

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Claim 1: “President Donald Trump has acted against diversity initiatives, which he calls discriminatory against white people and males.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources (IASPOINT, news reports on executive orders) confirm that Donald Trump has opposed DEI initiatives, characterizing them as discriminatory against white people.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Kai Madison Trump (born May 12, 2007) is an American social media personality and golfer. A member of the Trump family, she is the eldest child of Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump and the eldest gra…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Trump

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Donald Trump assumed office as the 47th president of the United States on January 20, 2025. The president has the legal authority to nominate members of his cabinet to the United States Senate for con…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_cabinet_of_Donald_Trump

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 2: “Data from the 2023 report also showed that Black boys were nearly twice as likely as white boys to receive an out-of-school suspension or expulsion in K-12 public schools”

CORROBORATED

The claim is corroborated by an AOL report referencing the 2023 report and a separate source ('The Masking of Black Boys') stating Black boys are nearly twice as likely to be suspended/expelled.

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web search NEUTRAL — "Black students have long faced some of the harshest discipline in our nation's schools." Data from the 2023 report also showed that Black boys were nearly twice as likely as white boys to receive an …
https://www.aol.com/articles/us-tells-schools-not-alter-2313…

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web search NEUTRAL — Concerned that out-of-school suspensions disproportionately target Black and brown students and stifle learning, some U.S. schools are doing away with this disciplinary practice.
https://walterborolive.com/premium/stories/out-of-school-sus…

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web search NEUTRAL — Black boys are nearly twice as likely as their White counterparts to receive an out-of-school suspension or expulsion.A Black boy in pain may be more likely to externalize the pain (don’t get it confu…
https://www.byronmcclure.com/post/the-masking-of-black-boys-…

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Claim 3: “The guidance follows the department's decision last month to remove several "disparate impact" regulations that for decades have prohibited policiesand practices with discriminatory effects that are often unintended.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources, including Reuters and other web reports, confirm the Education Department's removal of 'disparate impact' regulations that prohibited policies with unintended discriminatory effects.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Department for Education (DfE) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further, and high…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_for_Education

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Department of Education is a government department in Victoria, Australia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Education_(Victo…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department of the United States government, originating in 1979. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Ed…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 4: “Federal civil rights data has shown Black students are disciplined at disproportionately high rates.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources, including Word In Black and reports referencing the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), confirm that Black students face disciplinary actions at significantly higher rates than white peers.

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web search NEUTRAL — The Discipline-Achievement Divide. The CRDC’s latest findings show that Black students face school disciplinary actions at rates significantly higher than their white peers.
https://wordinblack.com/2025/02/black-students-are-punished-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Black and Hispanic students — particularly those with disabilities — are also disproportionately subject to seclusion or restraints. Students with disabilities make up 12 percent of the student body, …
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/education/black-students-…

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web search NEUTRAL — The 2011-2012 Civil Rights Data Collection first reported this imbalance -- finding that even though black children accounted for only 18 percent of preschool students, they represented 48 percent of …
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/civil-rights-data-collection_…

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Claim 5: “An Education Department report released in 2023 found Black public preschool children received out-of-school suspensions at a rate nearly twice their enrollment.”

CORROBORATED

The claim is explicitly reported by Steve Sailer and supported by the 2020-21 Civil Rights Data Collection data regarding preschool suspensions.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Department of Education of the City School District of the City of New York, commonly known as the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), is the department of the government of New York C…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Department_of_Ed…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the supervision for all public schools in New York and all standardized testing, as w…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Education_Depar…

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 6: “The new guidance says schools cannot modify discipline policies simply to reduce such racial disparities.”

CORROBORATED

Two independent web sources (one news report and one LinkedIn professional summary) confirm that the US Education Department issued guidance stating schools cannot modify discipline policies solely to reduce racial disparities.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Department of Education is a government department in Victoria, Australia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Education_(Victo…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_Department_of_Educa…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 7: “A school's decision "to change its discipline policies with the purpose of avoiding or reducing racial disparities in discipline constitutes race discrimination," the Education Department's office for civil rights said in a letter.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While the general sentiment of the guidance is corroborated in other claims, the specific phrasing regarding a 'letter' stating this constitutes 'race discrimination' is only explicitly linked in one search result snippet.

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web search NEUTRAL — Federal civil rights data has shown Black students are ?disciplined at disproportionately high rates. An Education Department report, opens new tab released in 2023 ?found Black public preschool child…
https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/politics/education-dept-…

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web search NEUTRAL — “In short, racial discrimination in school discipline is a real problem,” the guidance said. In recent months, DeVos has said change will be coming. She has already moved to rescind a regulation that …
https://www.wral.com/story/trump-finds-unlikely-culprit-in-s…

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web search NEUTRAL — Education Department officials said they had since abandoned the civil rights proposals, which were sure to be the most protested part of the proposal. They said the plan remained in flux.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/us/politics/betsy-devos-c…

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Claim 8: “Black girls were nearly twice as likely to receive one or more in-school suspensions, one or more out-of-school suspensions, and expulsions than white girls.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results to support or refute the specific statistics regarding Black girls' suspension rates compared to white girls.

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Claim 9: “It said schools must ensure students are not treated differently because of race and that "racial balancing" constitutes discrimination.”

CORROBORATED

The claim that the department stated 'racial balancing' constitutes discrimination is corroborated by the source 'US Tells Schools Not to Alter Discipline Policies to Reduce Racial...'.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Department of Education is a government department in Victoria, Australia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Education_(Victo…

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+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.