After 10-year investigation, feds rebuke JCPS over discipline of Black students

Jefferson County Public Schools disciplines Black students more harshly than white students for similar offenses, according to a decade-long federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

Federal education officials announced Thursday that JCPS signed a resolution agreement to resolve concerns raised during a “compliance review” that began after a 2013 complaint.

Documents show OCR found evidence of racially discriminatory discipline practices across the district. Here are the main findings:

• Black students were more likely than white students to receive an out-of-school suspension for their first infraction in a school year.
• Black students were subjected to exclusionary discipline when white students were allowed, for the same offense, the opportunity to apologize, engage in a restorative practice, or otherwise meet with district staff.
• Black students were more likely to be assigned to alternative placements and had longer stays than white students.
• Schools were more than 4 times as likely to involve law enforcement with Black students as they were with white students

In an emailed press release, JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said the district has “repeatedly acknowledged the existence of some disproportionality in disciplining of students.”

“But we have proven we are serious about racial equity and making the changes necessary to provide a positive learning environment for every student. We pledge to continue this work,” he said.

KyCIR first learned of the investigation in documents obtained through a records request earlier this month and was working to confirm more facts in the case when OCR announced Thursday JCPS had entered into the settlement agreement, at the request of the district.

The agreement is dated Wednesday, Sept. 25, one day after the Jefferson County Board of Education met in executive session for nearly two hours, and emerged to vote to settle an unnamed legal issue. All members present voted to settle, except James Craig, of District 3.

School board chair Corrie Shull, of District 6, confirmed on Friday that the matter voted on by the board Tuesday was the resolution agreement.

Shull said the board chose to sign the resolution on the advice of the district’s legal team.

Shull said the agreement put the district in a “better position,” outlined expectations, and “reset district practices.” He also pointed to the rewrites of the student handbook and the adoption of the racial equity plan in 2018 as evidence the district is making strides towards improving racial disparities.

“I think things are better in that the district is at least owning some of these matters, whereas a decade ago the district was not,” he said. He also said JCPS might need a longer runway for systemic change.

Louisville Branch of the NAACP president Raoul Cunningham told KYCIR he was “frustrated and disgusted that the Office of Civil Rights would have to point out to JCPS some of its discriminatory practices.”

“I think that this is one of the reasons the community has lost trust in JCPS,” he said.

Cunningham said he’s worried that the conclusion of the investigation might mean the federal government won’t be monitoring the district as closely moving forward.

“My concern is what else is going on in JCPS,” he said.

The Louisville NAACP has called for JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio to resign over his handling of the transportation crisis.

Cunningham said JCPS needs “almost a damn overseer” to hold it accountable.

A sweeping review

Shull said the investigation started as a result of a 2013 complaint about discipline.

A federal database shows JCPS has 11 cases pending with the OCR, including one related to discipline opened in December 2013.

Emails obtained in early September by KyCIR show the OCR requested a wide swath of documentation from JCPS, including policies, discipline data, training materials and arrest data related to the district’s school safety officers and safety administrators.

The emails show federal officials focused on disciplinary outcomes related to lower-level behavioral incidents, including “excessive noise,” “talking out in class,” “horseplay,” and breaking rules about phone use in nine JCPS schools during between the 2018-2019 school year and the 2021-2022 school year.

Those schools are:
• Blue Lick Elementary
• Klondike Lane Elementary
• Carter Traditional Elementary
• Noe Middle
• Jefferson County Traditional Middle
• Frederick Law Olmsted Academy North
• Atherton High
• Valley High
• Waggener High

Emails show federal investigators reviewed entire disciplinary files for dozens of students.

In their final compliance review report, investigators said the file reviews raised a number of concerns. In one case, they found JCPS gave a Black student 60 days longer in an alternative placement than a white student, even though the Black student’s infraction was “arguably less serious.”

In one high school, the investigators said two Black students written up for “horseplay” spent the rest of the day in in-school-suspension. Meanwhile, a white student written up for the same offense was allowed to apologize to the teacher with no further consequences.

“These examples raise concerns for OCR that the current [student behavior] handbook approach may still lead to inconsistent sanctioning practices between and within schools and continues to allow subjective factors, possibly including racial bias, to influence disciplinary decisions,” the report reads.

In reviewing individual cases, investigators also found that administrators gave much less detail in describing reasons for disciplining Black students compared to white students who were accused of similar offenses. The OCR report also said the district’s poor record keeping prevented investigators from determining whether some practices were discriminatory.

The OCR interviewed top staff, along with school-based administrators and teachers, documents show.

Emails also show OCR investigators conducted “focus groups” with members of the Black Student Unions at Noe Middle School and Waggener High School. While the schools remained unnamed in OCR’s final compliance review document, officials explained that OCR chose those schools because they were representative of the district, both in terms of their overall racial makeup and the rate of disproportionate discipline experienced by Black students.

KyCIR requested additional records and correspondence in the compliance review case in hopes of learning more. JCPS says those records will be available in late October.

‘Various concerns persist’

The final OCR compliance review document and resolution agreement acknowledge several positive changes the district made over the course of the investigation, like re-writing the 2014 student code of conduct , now called the Student Support and Behavior Intervention Handbook. Federal officials noted that JCPS eliminated several offenses that were more subjective in nature and more likely to be applied to Black students. Those offenses included “disruptive behavior” and “failure to obey staff.”

OCR also found the revamped handbook provided “considerably more guidance” to staff administering discipline.

“However, various concerns persist,” investigators wrote. “The handbook still provides little specific guidance to staff in selecting appropriate consequences, allowing for broad discretion that may contribute to disproportionate discipline.”

The report noted that the gap in suspension rates between white and Black students hardly budged over the course of the investigation. In the 2014-2015 school year, 14.8% of Black students had received an out-of-school suspension, compared to 4.8% of white students. By the 2021-2022 school year, Black student’s out-of-school suspension rate had ticked down to 14.2%, and white student’s rate remained the same.

Under the agreement signed this week, JCPS has agreed to do the following:

• Revise the Student Support and Behavior Intervention Handbook with input from parents, students and community members.
• Provide staff more guidance on what consequences are appropriate for behaviors, including specific guidance on the length of alternative placements.
• Train staff to better document behaviors that lead to discipline.
• Monitor and analyze discipline data to check for patterns showing racial bias or disproportionality.
• Identify staff who overuse referrals and disciplinary consequences and provide training, support or sanctions.
• Identify students who are repeatedly disciplined and provide support.
• Provide compensatory education for the 11 Black students OCR found to be unfairly disciplined in their sample file review.
• Train staff to provide discipline that complies with the soon-to-be updated handbook, including when it is appropriate to involve law enforcement.
• Survey students on their perception of disciplinary practices.

In a press release late Thursday evening, Catherine E. Lhamon, the Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said the federal agency “looks forward to working with Jefferson County Public Schools to fulfill its federal civil rights obligations to its students, ensuring equal treatment for each child at every stage of the discipline process.”

“Kentucky’s largest school system has now committed to build on important strides it made during the course of this compliance review to safeguard against race discrimination when disciplining students in its schools,” she said.

JCPS is expected to submit reports to OCR over the next two school years showing they are meeting the requirements of the agreement.

Investigations across the state

As the resolution agreement brings the OCR investigation to a close, JCPS is still under investigation by another federal agency, the U.S. Department of Justice , over racial and ethnic disparities in the impacts of the busing crisis and missed instructional time.

JCPS isn’t the only Kentucky district being investigated by the Department of Education for possible civil rights violations. A database maintained by the federal agency lists pending cases in 25 public Kentucky districts, including Fayette County Public Schools, Adair County Schools, Christian County Public Schools, and the Pike County School District. Rowan County Schools, with 13 open cases, has the most open investigations of any district.

No other information is available in the database regarding the pending cases.