US education department tells schools to stop ‘racial balancing’ in student discipline policies

• Schools cannot alter discipline rules to cut racial gaps, US Education Dept warns in new guidance.
• The US Education Department has told schools they cannot change student discipline policies solely to reduce racial disparities, arguing that doing so could amount to unlawful discrimination.
• The guidance, issued by the department's Office for Civil Rights, comes as federal data continues to show that Black students face higher rates of school discipline than their white peers.