The discussion on how to discuss discrimination the classroom the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom. We hear from assistant education secretary for civil rights, catholic the center for American Progress. I am delighted to be in conversation with the assistant secretary and welcome. Thank you. Tell us what this does. Is the justice and thank you all. The mission is equal access to equal opportunity for our prayers no shortage of needs in school created by congress for an Civil Rights Act was passed to enforce that promise that no person shall experience race and accommodation includingna school and congress and six, termination, big topics and we have 12 offices and 600 staff dedicated to enforcing these laws and are charges to investigate whatever and information it was violated. [laughter] we take seriously the need to fulfill that promise that no person will experience discrimination so we try to use the tools we have and guidance to share information and word to be enforced. This is a new muscle for us so thats our brought mission. A lot of justice. As much as we can. This is not your first time in this role. Why did this begin . First, i didnt want to leave. This gave me repeated reminders but it was the last date and i was devastated to leave and it was incredibly hard to be away from that of the time but i will just out myself, spent 17 years before coming to government and when it became government, i saw how much change we could make and how quickly and theres no placese else that i can do this much good. Im really hoping but the spin in the work we see and ability to make change for millions of people and six decades of what it should mean, theres really no other way to make that kind ofe difference. We are happy you did. Theres a lot of conversation around the words diversity, equity and inclusion and what does this mean to you . I will say what the president means, issued executive order and for us as a country, each of us is respected for who we are and we dont experience characteristics that are protected so my job is to ensure schools, students are able to focus on reading and writing and arithmetic and not harm and discrimination based on stereotype or actuality and it is important. We tryve to live that in our own practice but i dont have internal enforcement responsibility. What does mean you as a parent . T i have two kids, one in college and the other is and making sure my kids have every opportunity we sing every kid should have but i also feel 49 Million Students in the country, each of them deserves the promise i made to my own children. So want to talk children bit about their admission. Recent Supreme Court opinions. That opinion drastically altered come up in it for years of precedent for how colleges and universities consider race as one ofvee many factors in the admissions process. What does that decision mean for you . Also what does meet me for Educational Opportunity in america . I am for that decision and i enforce the law that decision ascribes a meansch of reaching practice for me in the office for civil rights. We have already received complaints responsive to the courts decision challenging University Admission practices and asking us to examine those practices in light of the decision so it will be a new day for us and how we enforce and what we will do. You mentioned, it up and 45 years of practice in schools. I mentioned roughly success in college and university, some 200 of of them have been engaging in someme form of use of race in their admission practices and that number among others will likely need to reconsider. How they consider race come if they consider race when engaging their admission practices. What i think it means for us as a country, to see that kind of seachange in the law and seachange in our shared understanding of what is an available tool is an opportunity, welcome not, is an opportunity to reconsider what and how we do the work to admit, retain, support and graduate diverse classes, nothing in the Supreme Court decisions challenges the ability to engage in those practices. My hope is that colleges and universities that were interested to ensure that they educate richly diverse classes persist in a commitment to educate richly diverse classes. Some colleges that were not committed maybe could start to be committed. I would welcome that. It is time for us to be thinking about how to do that work as well. And what new opportunities are available to us now that may be was a . That we have been using is a longer available. So what will be there instead. I will just say case anybody doesnt know, the president promised that we delivered at the department of education, department of justice to within 45 days of the courts decision issue in a set of resources that describe what the law is and what is still available. We are very clear the court did not take away the ability to seek at the first class, to educate a diverse class. The court did not speak to more than it did in the harvard and universal collided admissions practices. So it didnt address other issues, and that leaves a very wide variety of available options still to make sure that were educating the first class of students and that we not only bring them but we keep them and we graduate them and we prayer them, and that they are our future. We were concrete about some type of tools that are still available. They include reviewing data. They include recruitment strategies. They include work on belonging, work on making sure that students feel like their campuses are for them and offer a pretty wide open field for the coalition of the willing and hope that coalition is white. I thought was interesting you will did focus on belonging and a sense of belonging. Why is that important in the educational context and for colleges and universities that only focus on admissions and bring in a diverse campus but also retaining one . Ways that so important, important for education in america . First of all we want people to be educated. If we dont retain people then, at the very core that is an mechanistic important element for us. But separate and apart from that in my work to enforce congresses promise that no personal experience this commission on the basis ofha race, sex in particular what i i said all o often are the ugly effects of harassment, the ugly effects of the ugly and unlawful effects of a hostile environment that prevents a student from being able tont the benefit from education come from being able to focus in class on math or physics or whatever the subject is at hand. If students are denigrated from who they are, if students are subject to stereotypes about who they are and made if you like you are not part of the class, theyre not welcome, cannot part of the full committee, then our law is violated. I mean, that is a core component of nondiscrimination. Why is it important for School Communities to focus on belonging . The law demands it. Congress said so. But also we will not keep our kids in school. We will not educate and support the next time she brown jackson. We were not be developing the leaders who will do the things that we need done in our society if we dont welcome them in the community, nurtured them and make sure they can complete their educational journey. So you mentioned something about complaints and like specific instances of discrimination, you know, your Office Reviews of them and goes through come just tell us i think sometimes we talk about some rights, violations in the abstract but what areol you seeing . I guess ill say several things. The last fiscal year, our fiscal year goes october 1 to septembet fiscal year we saw the highest number of complaints that weve ever seen inve history of the office for civil rights. It was close to 19,000 complaints that came into us. Thats not good news i think it. On the one hand, i think, i am pleased that people believe government will be there for them. Im pleased people are coming to us with her deepest hurts and expecting progress because thatsg our job and im pleased to deliver. On the other hand, the volume complexity range of kinds of harms that we see in this time, certainly delegations that come into complaints, are astonishing. Some of them are the oldstyle discrimination, you know, you know its going to happen and you thought it was coming, and some of them are new and astonishing things you did know somebody could do to a person that we hear about. The covid context has created a new and different overlay for kinds of harms that might get visited on children, on students, and so thats hard and painful to see. My staff are terrific. I think we are equal to the task challenging to deliver just as quickly with that degree of complaint coming in. We had 18 fewer staff investigating than the last time we had the next highest complaint volume, which is also the last timead i was here. Maybe its me. But at the end of fy 16 went about 16,000 complaints and 18 more staff. Its a hard time to be doing the work. Let me taste some of the kinds of cases that we resolved, the kinds of justice that we see. I talked about harassment, i talked about a hostile and private. Let me make that not abstract. Last winter we resolved the case in a School District in iowa where where a black student was subjected over and over and over again to racially hostile environment at his school did respond to appropriate andt jut to recontextualize it come 6 of the kids in the school were black so already an isolated experience for the student. In this School District shortly after the george floyd murder, white student knelt on on a gatorade bottle looked at this laxton and said i cant breathe, as a way of addressing the student. Ga the principal didnt do that as racial harassment. Which it was. Let me just say. The principal did recognize that as rising to the love of race harassment even though it was also in the context of the student in called a Cotton Picker, called a monkey, had students saying the kkk is the Cool Kids Club at the school. Over and over and over, really ugly harassment. He was reduced to tears in class. That is not common among middle school boys, and he was reduced it to tears because he was watching a documentary about thinking about his own experience in school and receiving inconsistent and insufficient response from the schoole district. Thats not how a child should have to learn. We expect. What when we send her kids to school, by the way just as reminder school is compulsory in k12. This job was required to be in School Every Day and the learning environment for this student was so ugly about who he is, and he and his mom were complaining to thet School District, and the administrators whose job it is to support him were turning away and say its not thatt bad. Its not bad. It doesnt matter. It does matter, the federal government says it matters. Dennis subject to federal marketing at that kid is okay now and they are paying for counseling so i i feel good abot what we doing for him but appalled that it took that intervention it took a little White Knuckle negotiating to get this district to realize that they actually needed to change their practices. Thats very far from isolated. Another recent resolution was, this was an arizona School District where a black mother came to us and complained that a black daughter repeatedly had white teachers touching her hair and should ask not to touch her and they kept doing it. When we look in the files we found the teacher saying oh, e need somebody to sell her that shes beautiful song doing this and she should be grateful. Theres more to the story than i expected when we first got that in the complaint. That was the locus of the complaint and we can from that happen and you do to change but also in the course of the investigation found out about rampant race harassment across racial identities, you know, ugly antisemitic slant, slurs and People Holding up the eyes to mock asian students and just rampant race harassment that was taking place in the district without district response. Im grateful we found out that it wasnt worth his mom happened to tell us about it so we get a much more systemic resolution that we mightve thoughtatt gog in to try to ensure the district could make sure students would be safe. Again are subject to federal monitoring. We are there to make sure kids are okay and im glad we could do it, but when we think about school, i know yesterday was the first day of school in area School Districts here, and within us and our kids to school, they have new backpack, to lunchbox him i hope you like a teacher, sit up straight in class prep we are not thinking a sisterly that we have to say i want to steal you against the things some of you might call you, the thing someone might say to you in school. Its not, thats not the image of what school should be and is not what Congress Promises your school wont be. Im very grateful that we can be there when that happens, and im enormously distressed by the routine now with which we are saying that kind of harassment in school and insufficient school response. I will say more, you didnt ask us but i will say more, in this time theres a lot of polarization about schools in particular and a lot of polarization in our Public Discourse about how thick skin people should be or what we should be expecting in school. In those conversations we dont talk enough to we dont think enough about what werere asking our babies to hold, and the toll it takes on them to have to navigate that while trying to write an essay, while trying to learn history. It makes me sick as a mom. It makes me sick as the chief civil rights enforcer in the nations schools and it makes me worry about our democracy. So the conversation hits close to home for me because my son just started first grade as today. I do worry about some of those things. So how do we address that . How do we fix that, ensure that my son, of the kids when theyre going back to school dont have to shoulder so much in the classroom and kenaf environments that they are forced to be in . You mention their compulsory but also respectful, safe, inclusive environments as well. 19,000 of us have come toht e office of civil rights so thank you for that. Thats one path. We are issuing a lot of resources to try to share what the law is and those are things people can use themselves when advocating with the teacher come with a School District, with the school board, with the university of those are materials people can have at the ready. I will say in the badgers when he couldnt get the office of civil rights, my kids were in school and i did some things take a Dear Colleague and say i cited, make sure you want sure he saw come just make sure that my kids schools among of the kids schools beautifully comply. I h also hope that we are active participant in our kids schooling. I see our kids schooling meaning that very broadly. If you dont have given school hope youre volunteering in a school. If you do have kids in school i hope youre volunteering. That we can be active participant in our School Communities and work to ensure you are the committees they will be. And often when i come in my office, see discrimination its not because an educator wanted to hurt a child that was because somebody did know what the law was and did know how it was supposed response so lets help them to know. And to make sure were fully responsive to our whole School Communities. What you think is the biggest threat to civil rights in education right now . Well, im not going to pick one. The reality that Thomas Jefferson is same as having said, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. The reality is we always have to be vigilant about civil rights anywhere in civil rights and schools in particular. Every school year is a new opportunity to discriminate. We are always remind, always having to start again and to work on the class in front of us today to s make sure that it isa safe and appropriate and lawful nondiscriminatory space. One challenge is it still a challenge, that we have now six decadespr of promises about whoe will be as the country, and what the federal backstop against harm will be here and weve never achieved that. So that we are always working toward it is an ongoing and i think very big challenge. The other very big challenges are no child has a minute to waste of learning. So nobody can withstand another day where thea rights are not mt at school and is no time. So the urgency is intense. And the new a varieties of ways that we find challenge. We are in a pandemic still. We are coming through a change that was unimaginable to us before five years ago. We are living through that time, all of us, struggling through that and her kids are shaped by it. Their educators are shaped by it. The communities are shaped by it. It. So that is an ongoing challenge. The ways that we show up, the different needs that kids bring. They are very different. Each of us is an individual. Its among the Amazing Things of the human condition and it is also hard every day to make sure that every minute of every instructional day we are satisfying all the needs of the kids in front of us. Thats an enormous challenge. Said he talked about how were fighting for something we havent achieved yet. I actually want to read something from the guidance that i thought was well said where you say we seen that there are no simple answers from winding entrenchments in sprawling branches of segregation and discrimination. I guess my question is, why should we noten give into temptation . That there are never any fixes what comes to discrimination. Why should colleges and universities and schools and all of the still remain committed and vigilant as yazidi fixing something that we have fixed yet and may never fix . Were going to fix it. Okay. Forgive me. The alternative is worse, that if were not vigilant, it are not protective, then i mean, i think were at the abyss, right . So the alternative is worse. Let me just say ive out myself again, keep outing myself but i am a silverlight lawyer which means im an eternal optimist. You dont keep pushing the rock up the hill and lest you think you might actually get it up there sometime. You take what i i say with a n of salt. But my mother was ten years old the you that brown v. Board of education was decided she attended schools in racially sick good schools in virginia before andwa after brown. The decision never impacted the circumstances of her schooling. That is a history i hope we all know that virginia wasnt eager to change its practices so that offer integrated schooling for kids. My mother going up couldnt try aat hat on in the department ste and she wrote the back of the bus by law, and my father is why, my father is black my mother is black and the couldnt marry because loving v. Virginia had not been decided yet and they married and my great aunts backyard in washington, d. C. Because that was awful and a honeymoon in National Parks because it was lawful for themmo to be in National Parks and at many other places. That is not our history as my mothers life, and when my mother raised me and my brother, she promised us we could be anybody we wanted to be. She knew that wasnt true but that was a promise because it was her aspiration. Certainly my Life Experience was dramatically more open than hers had been. I didnt attend a racially segregated School Although in california where i p grew up the school i attended were disaggregated by court order. So do it that way, but you know, they work segregated schools by substantially more opportunity available to me that my mother did. Affirmativepe action was wide ad well when i was applying for college and they were available. As i raise my children i raise my children with broader and more wide open expectations even than my mother promised to meet and hope that she would be able to deliver even though she didnt have a reason to expect it. So why do wen do the work . Even though we havent actually did our aspirations yet we do because we hope we do because we want to. We do because we believe that things will be better for those who come after us. And, and weot do it because when wewe dont, when we are not vigilant about it we are so circumscribed we do so much in our rights, and that is a dangerous for us. So for me you do it because there islo no other alternative. So whats next for the office of civil rights . At leasto as far as affirmative action, decision goes, recent guidance and also saw like most recent guidance at lease last week, whats next as far as keeping this momentum going and making sure that everyone has the resources they need to live in compliance but also keep pushing forward for more inclusive campuses and schools . I was a several things. One, t i like your point about momentum. When it came to the office for civil rights in 2013 the most guidance weve ever issued in a single year was four. And this last year we issued seven guidance documents and issue with issued nine on race and shared aloneoc and many mor. In the total use of the Obama Administration we issued 38 resource documents. Speak to what to rights might be an help give, equip School Communities to be able to fulfill the law. I think whats next is it will be more of that. And more enforcement and more work. The second document, the document just in last fridays you mentioned, i want to speak to you too because its companion of of a sort to the response to the students prepared admissions decision that analyze whats available, whats left. The resource lastan week is instructive for School Communities about how they can still offer racially inclusive programming, and whats available. Theres so much public conversation now about whether dei activities are lawful and whether theyre even good policy goals. Whether they should be taking place in schools. I would want School Community to hear from me an emphatic yes, that federal law does not categorically bar those kinds of activities and are circumstances in which isan actually required. I will say, it is what the law, such as to say, you know, it was a lot of rhetoric in the last administration, a lot of rhetoric now among people are not President Biden about whether dei activities should be something we dont engage in. But ive had occasion to campus the office of civil rights resolution agreement and the trump years, in the obama years, and now. Malik it is you signing them but im looking at what the office has done consistently over time. In the trump years we routinely requiring School Districts to engage in implicit right training, to review data come to bring in people to train people about hostile environments because that was what the facts and investigations were to. Thats what a necessary response is to discrimination. When we talk about we shouldnt engage in these activities theres times absolution. Thereson times when to offer equal Educational Opportunity to remedy this commission on a basis of race or sex or disability is exactly whatdi you want to do. Theto law doesnt its not a diy word. Not something the law says we should do, it something the law says we must do in some circumstances. We were trying to get people School Communities to know that before they are required to us or by a court order to do it but actually think about the child who had kids, call the kid a Cotton Picker or call the kid really other names, ugliness and about how would you want that School Community to repair . How would you want that School Community to respond . The resource wiki should as examples of y a pretty wide variety of kinds of circumstances that could come up and we do see come up in the kinds of investigations we see. We were conscious in this last year with issued two documents we focus on antisemitism, focused on the scourge of what appears to be a ricin at this senator cotton including in schools. What we see when we see that kind of identitybased harassment take place in school is needd to respond as a School Committee to dni vegetables. And to educate a School Committee about why it is harmful to operate based on stereotypes and to lessen someones opportunity to learn based on ugly assumptions o that person is. And so im happy to enforce, were actively working on enforcement also issuing presidency trying to share why and when we need action. Also trying to help school kennedys come intoo compliance without us not having towh slap the wrist andnd share what the w requires that we provide interschool khmers sort kids can be safe. So theres this moment and i think convening the department of education how in response to the supreme supreme coue you reminded everyone that the office of civil rights,s, the federal government along with doj are theco ones who are responsible for enforcingng thoe laws. And if you havent heard from you all, then like just keep that in mind. Why was it such an important reminder to remind everyone that you a are the federal government is tasked with enforcing and responsible or enforcing those . I had been disturbed the degree to which i i see i thik delivered over read of recent Court Decisions including the students for fair admissionson decision and letters direction to School Communities to take action that wasec not in the courts opinion. And to say that this must mean you cannot do these other things, that the court didnt address. Some of the things the court did not address. So were not addressing this question. So when i hear, a a member of congress, when i hear states attorney generals, when i hear some activist groups sending letters to school saying you should change the practices because a lot demands it, i do think its important to be clear that we let people know what the law is and we are pleased and honored to enforce the law exactly as courts interpreted and exactly as Congress Writes it. If there is not a legal requirement to change course, then there isnt not a legal requirement to change course and it is important for us to say when is it is also important to be clear that there isnt. So ive been hogging the conversation for quite aoo while now. I want to open it up to her audience, ask questions. So wenf will come around to you with a microphone. Please wait for the microphone comes to you, i please state yor name and affiliation before asking your one question. Oneho question. We will hold you to that. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Im curious what does the students for fair admissionso decision mean for k12 schools, if anything . One thing, the student for fair admissions decision was about harvard and use of northcom on admission practicesi and it doesnt address issues outside the area including issues with respect to noneducation practices. So the law is and has been that individual use of race warrants strict scrutiny and that theres a particular legal test for how that applies. This resource every issued last friday to speak to the question and does address quite a bit of kinds of circumstances that can come up in k12 circumstances. The student for fair admissions decision doesnt address them. And so doesnt impact the practices in the School Communities. Hello, thank you for your topic my name is will. I am a canard fell within noaas office of education, short for National Oceanic and National Ministries also phd candidate at florida mechanical university. Congratulations. Thank you. Ready to do that. My question for you is, how has your work translate into student in use with rfi middle justice and the current justice40 initiatives of the Biden Administration . We are just as adjacent on Environmental Justice work that Environmental Protection agency has a Civil Rights Office who has jurisdiction over that question specifically, and i am impressed with answering on my colleagues there. I but typically Environmental Justice questions would go to that office for enforcement. There are certainly Environmental Justice issues i can come up in schools. The question of whether School Facilities are safe and apart for students and whether there are differences and available resources by race or by other protective categories that we have jurisdiction over. We would be able to address the question. So, for example, School Committees are routinely lacked airmm conditioning and its an safe for kids the end, its too hot, thats an Environmental Justice question also a Racial Justice question we would have jurisdiction over. So there are some places where we have an entree and would be able to address the a questd there are some places where it would be more appropriately addressed to the epa office for civil rights but there also terrific and truly delighted to be on that work, too. Thank you for coming and speak with us. I am a Research Associate on a k12 teamo. Here at cap and my question is depolarized khmers that exist on the internet what is a role of Media Literacy and teaching about Online Safety in the k12 spaceto as it pertainso civil rights . Im going to give you the lawyerly answer any more human answer to give you a preview. There are statutory restrictions on the department of education and office for civil rights as part of the department of education setting or controlling school curriculum. We are not able to set or control school curricula. Thats a choice that is locally made, and my office job is to enforce the law and so we also dont make announcements about what might like. We say thats what the law requires. There are times when i i quesn about what the law requires gets to a curricular choice. If the lens through which i can look at thehr question and mccain at the office of rights can look at the question is, is the racial hostile environment lens, the disability hostile environment lens, if any sculptures including ae curricular choice lends itself to the creation or perpetuation or support of a hostile environment, then the score you to take corrective action. It doesnt assuming they need to change their choice but does mean do we need to ensure that the environment is safe and apart for students to learn without discrimination. We would be l able to look at it that way. My views as assistant about the appropriate choices for literacy and democracy literacy and literacy, you know, have lots of thoughts on as a mom come as a human being but as a chief civil rights enforcer, thats nots an area that he get to delve too fart into. Thanks. Thank you for being here. I am the executive Vice President for policy here at American Progress, really appreciate the conversational vy much with both of you and thank you for joining us on this last week of august before school starts. I wanted to bring you back to the Supreme Court decision and a noted when jared asked to the question kind of entered the question he talked about this changing 40 years president. I heard in your response some looking at, not lawyers people to get at the decision as nearly as possible. I i may have overheard that but what entries about is how you balance very natural sentiment among people who care that the sky has fallen with a maybe the sky is falling but heres how we redirect. This is a space was still have to operate. How do you come what you advise on that particularly from an organization like American Progress . Sure. And i will say i dont, i dont see myself looking at the decision as nearly as possible. I look at the decision is what the court said, and with the court said was the two universities admission practices that were in front ofol the court violate the constitution and so those practices need toth chang. I emphasize that because thats the law that i enforce. I need to be clear and the School Committees are clear that if you recognize your higher admission practices in what was in front of the Supreme Court in the suits for fair admissions case you should change them because the court has said they are unlawful. The court did not speak beyond that question. Andqu the court said it didnt speak beyond that question. I have to enforce the law the court writes it. So to me that are not very many other options. The court did not speak to other question so we dont have an answer from the court on those questions. We do have decades of precedent that predate the court, unchanged by this Court Decision that we do need to adhere to and that my office does need to enforce. And display of limitation in those decades of precedent already. Its important to live within them. I think its dangerous to read tea leaves in what a court says. The court didnt address that question. So we cant ascribe to the court of you on it. The job of the office of civil rights assigned by congress is to enforce the law on the various kinds of facts that can of us and our times we have to say there is no specific precedent for this fact pattern. And so we are making our best judgment about whether the law does or does not allow those faxed to exist. Thats the hard work and thats interesting work. We love to do that and weve been doing thatt for all these decades. Happy to do that but but its important not to say that the Supreme Court in this decision said this if it didnt. Think is important. For the rest of us as we think about what we do next, there is no question the Court Decisions dramatically changed the lawful practices of a lot of places over for a half decades. So we are now in this new admission cycle needing to operate in a very different way. We had some time to think that was probably coming so thats the glass halffull lens on it. There were, there are a lot of ways to admit and support and graduate students that are separate and apart from the admissions practice that was in front of the court. And we now know we cant operate those ways anymore. But we were not told, we have not been told, it is not unlawful to engage in other practices that will achieve diverse campuses. I know i benefited from a cult and a law school that were looking for me and i were looking for my classmates who were nothing like me, who came together to have hard conversations and that made it a rich environment. I want that for my daughter whos in college. I wonder from a child whos going to go to college there after i do want it for all of your kids. Thats what builds effective communities. Thats what sustains peoples ability to be prepared to vote and to participate in our governments. I think they are important. As huge as the decision is in terms of changing practices at schools, theres also an even future university didnt touch. And i think we should be focused on whats available while having absolute fealty to what the court says we can do. And not do the thing anymore. So to me that lots of opportunity that is maybe sad that all that opportunity was there and we were not availing ourselves of it as a nation. But here it is now and we still have the imperative to educate and prepare diverse student bodies for the diverse world that we live in. A question from the online audience over here. This is from congresswoman Sheila Jackson lee is office, and her staff person ask, youve spoken on the education can play a role in promoting social mobility in reducing inequality. What policies and strategies do you think will be the most effective in achieving these goals especially in aftermath of the courts decision . Yousi know, im an all in person. I think we should be working on all all of the front all of the time every day. That is sometimes frustrating to my staff and sometimes frustrating as may be a nonresponse but i mean it, that when i say that no child has a minute to waste of learning, i mean that. And so far focused on schools and what are the most important strategies to make sure schools can be the Inclusive Communities that we promised that they will be, all of them, you know, we want to teach in front of the class to be prepared to be a teacher, to be ready to nurture the gifts ofe every student in class to recognize every student bring something to the school, to not be pushing kids out of school but to be sending a message the school is for you. Or whatt the School Leadership o be Instructional Leaders to be visionaries, to be plant for School Environment that is ready and that offers a full range of resources that should be available for them. We want Higher Education to be accessible and available and available for all of us. All ofll those things are incredibly important. So for me stop sleeping, stop resting, go volunteer into the work. I dont think we should be picking, because there is no part of the education endeavor that is an incredibly important. And i will again bring it home to my kids. My oldest is going to college is a scientist which i completely dont understand, you know . She loves her labs and she so can do. About what she all i work in college was not to ever go to another lab. That means we show up in a in totally different ways and we have different gifts and aspirations and all of us should be it is we have two making the fabric of our society work, and our School Communities should be prepared to support that, period. Thank you. Ive won more from from the virtual audience. This is on the call from the American Federation of teachers. She says we are hearing more and more from faculty you are involved with graduate student admissions, which is usually a faculty led process. Despite the comprehensiveness of the process, some College Administrators are instructing faculty not to ask about race, not to consider racepa at all. And a parent of a connection. What advice would you give specifically to faculty and administrators involved in graduate admissions . So i never promise will be going to issue. Make investment so ill just keep give you my standard not answer on that, but on the more specific question, the court did not tellt. Admissions officers o ignore race. It did not. And it did not say that harvard or unc or any other school needed to not know or and see what it sees in the students files for a did not tell students that they couldnt talk about race in the admissions and aesthetically. I think affaire ancillary or corollary to that is that Guidance Counselors to write about kids race if he wanted to end of the recommenders could write about that if you wanted to. Theres nothing in the courts opinion that said that the experience t of the person applying to the School Including that persons race cannot be accounted for as part of the admissions decision in the admissions decisionmaking. So that is very much an over read of the courts decision, and its deathly not legally required that schools not consider who their applicants are. As they are making decisions about whom to welcome into the School Communities. Any other questions in the room . I love this notts shy audien. Im on the Higher Education team here at capsule thank you so much for this wonderful conversationis today. My question is aboutut the Civil Rights Data collection. We know provides a really userfriendly way to find information on Student Access to particular resources within the elementary and secondary school. Does the ocr have similar resource reviewing info about colleges and universities . And if not is that something to office might eventually pursue . I would love it. I loved it and i so appreciate your talking about with the civil rights of Data Collection what to tell you coming out soon and im very excited to be able to share what we see in the most recent data. Also ian been excited and said because of a lot of inequality that we knew that. Its important to be t able to e it among all of our committees and i appreciate the you made that its accessible and thats relatively recent. There was a change my predecessor in the Obama Administration made for the data because it wasnt something we use. Weve been collecting it since 1960 and we been using inner civil rightsat enforcement but rustin allan he was assistant secretary for civil rights before was in the obama years made it more transparent and more accessible extra so more people could use. I love that about him and im delighted people using it i would welcome having parallel data in a parallel data look into institutions of Higher Education. There are some statutory limitations on our ability to gather that. I heard that congresswoman jackson lees office was on the maybe to be a statute to give the Sport Authority on this but this also expense associated with it to the Civil Rights Data collection is among the more expensive endeavors in the office of civil rightsit and we are budgetary elite limited as it is. We have, the president called for a 27 increase in our budget which humbly welcome that would allow us to bring in another 150 people to do enforcement, to be able to create a new biannual massive Data Collection that we are able to get clean up and make public. We would need some more billions of dollars to be able to do it is open in, would welcome it. I think we do a lot with the data we have. That is a a civil rights of da collection which is i would welcome to be able to have that kind of looked at and information about the experiences of students in Higher Education as well. Im with the american so theres been a disturbing proliferation of fans across the country in different schools,n particularly targeting black authors andve lgbtq authors and issues. I guess im curious, have you seen an increase in complaints of those issues first . Secondly, what can the office due to address that . What is office doing to address this issue . We have seen an increase in complaints which is assigned a much because we havent seen any conflict on the topic but also because the really are not d bands of this type, there have been for some decades. Thats a cycle, at this point cycle in American History that it is a cycle for us and were back in the part of the cycle where the bands are very present part of the education conversation. The resource we released last week talks about the racially hostile environments, Sexual Harassment environments are also wrote as if to the book band as you mentioned thats the lens would be able to examine. We dont as a mentioned have Statutory Authority to determine what curriculum is offered in the school. Ul weer do have a statutory mandate to address the existence of a racially sexually our disabilitybased hostile environment i can exist in a school and that something we must investigate and address where needed. We have several cases in investigation on the topic now. We have resolved with one School District recently on the topic and the terms are specific to what was happening in that district but they are the dish account already in place a very inclusive policy. The district had not followed some statutorily required steps that title ix regulation, the sex discrimination regulation of sex this Commission Statute that we enforce as a maid in the Trump Administration requires that when a School Community knows about possible Sexual Harassment, possible hostile environment, the School Community must inform that possibly affected students how to file a complete, how to reach out to the chordata and available supports. That district didnt. There was a pretty textbook concern about i need to act. We ask the district to make sure the students to about a title ix chordata, the title vi cornet and also what support available and to assess whether they need to take action to address a possible hostile environment. That would be the lens that we wouldan and could access the question. I am dismayed by the number of times that people have felt the need to come to us about it because they are feeling like the selected bands of particular books in their schools and the School Committees is impacting their abilityab to learn. This will be our last question. I with education reform now. I was wondering how you advise schools and districts to implement Proactive Solutions to harassment in very polarizing age where teachers dont feel comfortable or outright not allowed to discuss race and gender in the classroom . So your question breaks my heart. Let me to start. Some things are hard for me. My job is Law Enforcement and so i am not commonly in the of advising people not proactive steps to take because i am when you violated the law. There are steps that schools can take and educators in schools can take to ensure inclusive environments. And i welcome it when schools are thoughtful about how to make sure that everyone in their midst can learn and can be respected and valued for who they are. Those include not communicating to students that they are unwelcome for who they are, not communicate to students that the educator in the classroom, that the school tolerates harassment based on whoun students are. There are kinds of things that ive seen schoolas communities o that are inclusive that work well, that include making sure that the examples that they offer, that the materials that they teach about reflect a range of ways the kids might show up at school and the ways that the students might show up as learners. Those are kinds of steps that can take i can tell you the things we would require the school to do if you have discriminated. They would certainly need to be, the law is that they must be enough to redress the harm that has taken place. So they want w to be fact specic and response but alsoo include analyzing data, collecting information from students about impact on them, and then they might offer counseling. They might offer training for School Community. They might offer educational materials to talk about prevention to let people know how to be an op stander and out of the part of an effective School Community that is supportive, but the lens that i bring to it is enforcement lens. So it is is what may she do to correct boasting that youve done that is harm someone . I want to thank you so much for being here and join us in conversation. Just thank you for your time and thank you for your work. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] use Senate Returns from its summer recess later today at 3 p. M. Eastern. Senators will put at 5 30 p. M. Eastern to to advance the nomination Federal Reserve board member philip jeffords to be vice chair. Later in a week lawmakers are expected to continue work on more of President Bidens nominations for the Federal Reserve as well as for the sec and the National Labor s board. Live coverage of the u. S. Senate on cspan2 and you can watch all our congressional coverage under free video app cspan now or online at cspan. Org. If you ever miss in a cspans coverage you can find it any time online at cspan. Org videos of two hearings, debates and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights. These points of interest markers appear on the right inside of your screen. When you hit play unselect the district this t