Schools

Axios - Rigid school attendance zones allow districts to legally keep many students of color and low-income families out of coveted, elite K-12 public schools, a new study finds.  The U.S. will soon mark the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended legal segregation in public schools. Yet, researchers found growing inequality in school access as the nation has become more diverse, according to the new study by nonpartisan education watchdog Available to All.

• School segregation between Black and white students has returned to 1968 levels.
• Researchers found that legal discrimination and non-neutral enrollment policies — rules that allow districts to use addresses or selective criteria for admission — are common and enshrined in state laws.
• School officials exploit loopholes to cherry-pick students and even criminally prosecute low-income families that try to send their children to elite public schools outside of their assigned boundaries, the report said.

The report found examples of loopholes involving parents forced to pay "tuition" for their child to attend a public school outside their district of residence.

• Individual public schools also can be captured by interest groups or small groups of parents.
• The report found that a top-ranked Tampa, Florida, school remained extremely exclusive, operating an attendance zone that mirrors the racist redlining map from 1936 and excluding many low-income kids who live nearby.

School districts set boundaries and assign schools generally connected to families' neighborhoods.

• All 50 states and the District of Columbia allow or require school assignments to be based on students' residential addresses.
• Because wealthier families have privileged access to the best public schools via "educational redlining" according to the report, it is often difficult for other schools to attract these families, creating a vast inequality of resources.

To enforce boundaries, the report said some school districts hire private detectives to find parents who are trying to send their children to elite schools outside of their assigned zone. MORE

Chalkbeat - New rules that protect students from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity will take effect in August. On Friday, the Biden administration announced long awaited rule changes to Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools. Already, state superintendents in Louisiana and South Carolina have told schools to disregard the changes, settling the stage for potential legal battles and leaving many LGBTQ students unsure of their rights.