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The article focuses on the potential impact of the new Title IX regulation, suggesting that while it may lead to an increase in harassment complaints, it also offers districts the opportunity to simplify their handling of such cases. Topics include the broader coverage of harassment under the new rule, the flexibility it provides for streamlining complaint processes, and the legal considerations for districts navigating lawsuits challenging the regulation.

The article discusses how updating school attendance boundaries using algorithms based on district goals and parent preferences can reduce racial segregation between white students and students of color by 14 percent on average in large districts. It also mentions the potential for greater efficiency and diversity in education without significantly lengthening students' bus rides.

The article offers suggestions for eleminating racial injustice within school districts. Topics discussed include examining policies, procedures, practices with an equity lens to root out biases that may be contributing to achievement gaps; creating real partnerships with families and communities to help students succeed; and moving beyond heroes and holiday curriculum to culturally relevant curriculum.

This article reports that teachers and coaches who suffer reprisals for complaining about illegal sex discrimination against their students will be able to sue their school districts for damages, under a ruling handed down last week by a sharply divided the U.S. Supreme Court. The 5-4 ruling held that the federal law that bars discrimination based on sex in federally financed education programs gives people the right to sue if they suffer retaliation for alleging that the law is being broken. It came in a case brought by Roderick L. Jackson, a high school girls' basketball coach who sued the Birmingham, Alaska, school district in 2001. INSET: The Supreme Court on Title IX..

The article discusses inconsistencies in data reported by U.S. school districts related to racial desegregation. Topics include federal desegregation mandates for school districts, the definition used by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, and changes to Civil Rights Data Collections (CRDC) used by the U.S. government.

The article reports on trends of racial conflicts in the Oxnard Union High School District of California and the efforts of several civil rights organizations to address the problem. Details are given outlining a task force created with the cooperation of the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Associations for the Advancement of Colored People seeking to resolve the problem.

The article presents an overview of accusations raised against the Mobile County school district of Alabama, citing allegations of illegal gender segregation in a middle school. Details are given regarding the teaching methods of Hankins Middle School, citing the complaints and lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The article reports that 13 Somali youths have filed a lawsuit alleging that an alternative school holding a contract with Minneapolis, Minnesota, school district violated state and federal laws by discriminating against them. The lawsuit, filed September 20 in the federal district court in Minneapolis, alleges that Abraham Lincoln High School, now called Lincoln International High School, failed to appropriately help the students learn English, didn't properly evaluate them to see if they had disabilities and misinformed them about graduation requirements.

The article reports that Michael Winsten, who is fighting a voluntary-integration plan in a California school district, says some people think, the parents in his group don't want their children to mix with children of other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Winsten and his wife are plaintiffs in a lawsuit pending against the 50,400-student Capistrano Unified district, located in San Juan Capistrano, California. The lawsuit claims the district is violating Proposition 209, a California constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1996, by using race or ethnicity as a factor in drawing attendance boundaries for a high school expected to open in the fall of 2006.

The article reports that a Maryland school district has set the goal of eliminating the achievement gap between its black and white students within two years to settle a complaint filed by local civil rights groups last year, on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning segregation in public education. Previously, district leaders had committed to narrowing, but not eliminating, the racial achievement gap by 2007.

This article reports that a Louisiana school system says a federal appeals court was wrong when it held this month that the district's policy for selecting youngsters for a public magnet school illegally discriminates against white students. A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, agreed with Kevin Paul and Julie Ann Cavalier that the Caddo Parish school district was out of bounds when it denied the couple's son entry to a selective middle school. In an opinion by Circuit Judge William L. Garwood, the panel rejected the district's argument that its policy was justified by a consent decree reached in 1981 to settle a 1965 desegregation lawsuit.

A federal appeals court has rejected arguments by Boston parents who claimed that the school district's student-assignment plan unfairly discriminates against white students. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, in Boston, found on July 12, 2004, that the 60,000-student district has not unfairly limited white students' chances of being accepted into their preferred schools. Under the Boston schools' assignment policy for elementary and middle schools, the city is divided into three geographical zones. Half of a school's seats are reserved for neighborhood students.

A Seattle, Washington-area school district has been advised to discontinue its policy of allowing security officers to use handcuffs on unruly students. Superintendent Barbara Grohe of the Kent, Washington schools appointed an independent panel on April 14 to review the district's safety operations and procedures. The district is facing nearly $50 million in damage claims for allegedly allowing its security officers to use excessive force and practice racial discrimination in restraining youngsters.

The St. John the Baptist Parish public school district in Louisiana has instituted a system to "color code" teaching positions to track the transfer of teachers from one school to another. The coding program is part of the district's new effort to comply with a federal court order to desegregate its faculty. It comes at a time when the nation is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which overturned laws enacting racial segregation in public schools. Located in southeastern Louisiana, on the Mississippi River, the St. John the Baptist district has been under a federal court order to desegregate its schools-including its teaching force-since the early 1960s.

This article focuses on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The legacy of this history of avoidance and delay has left the public schools so segregated that there are good grounds for questioning whether there is much to celebrate on Brown's 50th. Some school districts show that one of the most important benefits of integration is the presence of middle-class parents who utilize their political clout to advocate for resources that benefit all students, and students who are better prepared to handle the challenges of living in a diverse society because of the education they received.

California education officials were poised to decide if the Westminster school district's new anti-discrimination policy meets state laws designed to protect transgender students — and if it doesn't, what state sanctions they will impose. Westminster's school board drew the attention of the state education department in February, 2004 when the board refused to change the district's anti-discrimination policy to comply with state law. Three members of the five-member school board had refused to change the district's anti-discrimination policy because they objected to having the district recognize people who perceive their sex to be something other than what it is biologically. In a 3-2 vote last week, the Westminster school board passed an anti-discrimination policy with new language designed to satisfy the state.

Reports on abuse claims of gay students against school districts. Claims of abuse and insults endured by high school students including Jamie S. Nabozny; Allegations of lack of assistance from school officials in preventing such abuses; School district rulings affecting homosexual students.

Reports that a racial-discrimination lawsuit by three Durham, North Carolina residents is threatening to disrupt school board elections scheduled for spring 1996. Elections stemming from the 1992 merger of the school districts of mostly white Durham County and the city of Durham, with predominantly black population; Residents' opposition to the merger.

Reports on a proposed secession of the Pajaro Valley school district in California. Claims of racial discrimination in the district; Racial structure of the district; Impact of a breakaway on the district's economy; Arguments by critics and supporters of the proposal.

Reports on the lawsuits filed by lawyers representing highschool girls in western Nebraska against school districts. Alleged violation of federal law barring sex discrimination in education; Schools' failure to provide their female students with equal opportunities to take part in interscholastic sports; Districts' refusal to form girls' softball teams; Views of superintendents.

Reports on a court decision upholding a federal magistrate's opinion that schools in Rockford, Ill., engaged in intentional discrimination against black and Hispanic students. Evidence of district's discriminatory practices against minority students; Racial disparities in staff assignments; Impact of case settlement on union contracts.

Reports on a judge's ruling that Rockford, Illinois school district is guilty of racial discrimination and school resegregation based on its use of some educational practices. Practices viewed as racially discriminating by the court; Vulnerability of the teacher's contract; Plaintiff's call for broadening the interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling on the Freeman versus Pitts case.