Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—MAY, 1965—SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS
Commissioner Keppel Issues Compliance Guidelines
The U. S. Office of Education issued on
April 29 the following general statement of
policies under Title VI of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 respecting desegregation of ele
mentary and secondary schools:
I. APPLICABILITY OF TITLE VI OF THE
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 TO DESEGRE
GATION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECOND
ARY SCHOOLS.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits the
extension of Federal financial assistance to any
dual or segregated system of schools based on race,
color, or national origin. To be eligible to receive,
or to continue to receive such assistance, school
officials must eliminate all practices characteristic
of such dual or segregated school systems.
H. METHODS OF COMPLIANCE—GENERAL.
Elementary and secondary schools or school
systems may qualify for Federal financial as
sistance by:
A. Executing an Assurance of Compliance
(HEW Form 441), if the requirements specified in
III below are satisfied; or
B. Submitting a final order of a court of the
United States for the desegregation of the school
or school system which satisfies the requirements
specified in section IV below, together with an
Initial Compliance Report (see VI below); or
C. Submitting a plan for the desegregation
of the school system which the Commissioner of
Education determines is adequate to accomplish
the purposes of the Civil Rights Act, as set forth
in these policies (see V below); together with an
Initial Compliance Report (see VI below); and
D. Implementing the Assurance, final court
order or desegregation plan in good faith so as
to effectuate the basic objective set forth in section
601 of Title VI:
“No person in the United States shall, on the
ground or race, color, or national origin, be ex
cluded from participation in, be denied the bene
fits of, or be subjected to discrimination under
any program or activity receiving Federal finan
cial assistance.”
in. METHODS OF COMPLIANCE — ASSUR
ANCE OF COMPLIANCE (HEW FORM
441).
An Assurance of Compliance (HEW Form
441) that will qualify a school system for Fed
eral financial assistance may not be executed by
a school system in which:
A. The race, color, or national origin of pupils
is a factor in their initial assignment, reassign
ment, or transfer to a particular school or class
within a school; or
B. Teachers or other staff who serve pupils
remain segregated on the basis of the race, color,
or national origin of the pupils in a school; or
C. Any activity, facility or other service, in
cluding transportation, provided or sponsored by
a school system is segregated on the basis of race,
color, or national origin; or
D. There remain any other practices char
acteristic of dual or segregated school systems.
IV. METHODS OF COMPLIANCE—COURT OR
DERS.
A. A school system subject to a final order of
a court of the United States will be eligible for
Federal financial assistance only if the order di
rects desegregation of the school system; it does
not suffice if the order merely directs school au
thorities to admit certain named persons or
otherwise fails to require the elimination of a
dual or segregated system of schools based on
race, color, or national origin.
B. School districts submitting a final court
order should send official copies of the court order,
together with an Initial Compliance Report as
described in VI below, indicating the present state
of compliance with the order and the school dis
trict’s program for continued compliance.
V. METHODS OF COMPLIANCE—PLANS FOR
THE DESEGREGATION OF SCHOOL SYS
TEMS.
A. Types of Desegregation Plans.
A school system will be eligible for Federal
financial assistance by submitting a desegregation
plan providing for the assignment, reassignment,
and transfer of pupils to or within schools on the
basis of:
1. Geographic attendance areas, subject to
the requirements of sections V.B. and C. below;
2. Freedom of choice granted to and ex
ercised by the pupil and his parents or guardians,
subject to the requirements of sections V.B. and
D. below; or
3. A combination of geographic attendance
areas and freedom of choice.
B. Requirements Which All Desegregation
Plans Must Satisfy.
1. Faculty and staff desegregation. All de
segregation plans shall provide for the desegrega
tion of faculty and staff in accordance with the
following requirements;
a. Initial assignment. The race, color, or
national origin of pupils shall not be a factor in
the assignment to a particular school or class
within a school of teachers, administrators or
other employees who serve pupils.
b. Segregation resulting from prior discrim
inatory assignments. Steps shall also be taken to
ward the elimination of segregation of teaching
and staff personnel in the schools resulting from
prior assignments based on race, color, or na
tional origin (see also V.E.4 (b) ).
2. Nondiscrimination in other school affili
ated services, facilities, activities and programs.
All desegregation plans shall provide for the
elimination of discrimination based on race, color,
or national origin, with respect to services, fa
cilities, activities and programs affiliated with the
schools of the system. If busing or other trans
portation is furnished or sponsored by the school
or school system, the plan shall call for its pro
vision without discrimination based on race, color,
or national origin.
3. Preparation of pupils, teachers, staff and
community for desegregation. All desegregation
plans shall contain specific information as to ac
tions that will be taken to prepare pupils, teach
ers, staff personnel and the community for the
changes which will be involved in desegregating
the school system.
4. Notice.
a. All desegregation plans shall provide for
their publication in a conspicuous manner in a
newspaper having general circulation in the
geographic area served by the school system, rea
sonably in advance of the time for any action
which may be taken by pupils under the plan;
b. All desegregation plans shall provide
for notification to pupils currently enrolled in the
school system and to their parents or guardians
in sufficient time to enable them to understand
and take advantage of their rights to initial as
signment, reassignment or transfer for the com
ing school year, and for the mailing of such
notices to parents or guardian of pupils then
enrolled or for their distribution in any other
manner that will assure their receipt by parents
or guardians;
c. All desegregation plans shall be ac
companied by sample copies of the notices to be
given respecting each of the following categories:
(1) The initial assignment of pupils intending
to enter schools of the system for the first time;
(2) Initial assignment of pupils intending for
the first time to enter a school of higher level
after having completed a school of less advanced
level; and
(3) The reassignment or transfer of pupils
for the forthcoming school year.
5. Subsequent court orders. If, after submis
sion of a desegregation plan, a final order of a
court of the United States is entered calling for
the desegregation of the school or school system
covered by the plan, the plan shall be revised,
if necessary, to meet the requirements of the court
order and of any future modification of the order.
6. Performance as a test of plan. The Com
missioner of Education may from time to time
redetermine the adequacy of any desegregation
plan to accomplish the purposes of the Civil
Rights Act.
C. Plans Based on Geographic Attendance Areas.
A desegregation plan which proposes to as
sign, reassign or transfer pupils on the basis of
geographic attendance areas shall contain pro
visions that will meet the following requirements
as to all grades covered by geographic zoning:
1. Attendance zones. Racially separate at
tendance zones shall be abandoned entirely and
each attendance zone shall be part of a single,
nonracial system of attendance zones. Zone lines
shall be drawn to follow the natural boundaries
or perimeters of compact areas surrounding par
ticular schools.
2. Initial assignment. All pupils shall be
initially assigned to the school for the geographic
attendance zone in which they reside.
3. Attendance outside zone of residence. The
rules or practices under which pupils are reas
signed or permitted to transfer to a school out
side their zone of residence shall not take race,
color, or national origin into account.
4. Right to attend in zone of residence. At
the beginning of any school year any pupil at
tending a school outside his zone of residence
shall have the right to transfer to and attend the
school in his zone of residence.
5. Notice. Each pupil and his parents or
guardians shall receive notice of the school to
which the pupil is assigned which satisfies the
requirements of V.B. (4) above.
D. Plans Based on Freedom of Choice.
The responsibility to eliminate segregation
rests with the school authorities and is not satis
fied by rules and practices which shift the bur
den of removing discrimination to the class or
classes of persons previously discriminated against.
Desegregation of a school system may, however,
be initiated by a “free choice” plan containing
provisions that will meet the following require
ments as to all grades covered by free choice.
1. Adequate opportunity to make a choice.
No pupil shall be assigned, reassigned or trans
ferred without being given once annually, at an
appropriate time, an adequate prior opportunity
to make an effective choice of school.
2. Pupil placement laws. The criteria of pupil
placement laws or similar statutes, rules or prac
tices shall not be used to limit desegregation
through restriction of any pupil’s right to free
choice.
3. Initial assignment: lowest elementary grade
levels.
a. Announcement of the procedures for ini
tial assignment of pupils to the lowest elementary
grade level (including preschool and kindergarten
classes where available) shall be made by full
notice in the press.
b. The times and places for, and manner of,
preregistration and enrollment shall be fixed so
that a free choice may be made easily by each
pupil.
c. If no choice is made or if overcrowding
will result at a particular school from the choices
made, initial assignment shall be made either by
giving preference to the pupils residing closest to
the school or on the basis of non-racial attendance
zones.
4. Initial assignment: lowest grade of junior
high, high nr other school above elementary level.
a. Announcement of the initial assignment
of pupils to the lowest grade of junior high, high
or other school above the elementary level shall
be made ly individual notices to each pupil and
his parents or guardians. The notices shall be
furnished reasonably in advance (as specified in
the plan) of the time for filing the form for ex
ercising choice of the school next to be attended,
together with copies of the form. Copies of the
notice and the form shall be submitted together
with the plan.
b. If overcrowding will result at a par
ticular school because of the choices made, initial
assignments shall be made either by giving prefer
ence to the pupils residing closest to such school
or on the basis of non-racial attendance zones.
c. Pupils may either be required to make
a choice of schools or be initially assigned, if they
do not make a choice, on the basis of proximity
of their residence to the school or by non-racial
attendance zones.
5. Reassignment or transfer: all other grades
to which freedom of choice policy applies.
a. In all other grades to which the freedom
of choice policy applies, every pupil shall be in
formed by individual notice addressed to himself
and his parents or guardians: (1) of his right to
transfer to a school of his choice, and (2) where
copies of the form for exercising this transfer
right may be readily obtained in the school and
elsewhere.
b. If overcrowding will result at a particu
lar school because of the choices made, the pupil
shall either be given preference over pupils re
siding farther from the school or shall be per
mitted to attend another school of his choosing
within a reasonable distance of his residence.
6. Initial assignment: pupils entering school
system for first time or who become eligible to
attend some other school in the system by reason
of change of residence. Any pupil who either en
ters the school system for the first time or be
comes eligible to attend some other school in
the system by reason of a change of residence
shall be initially assigned without regard to race,
color, or national origin.
7. Transportation. The exercise of free choice
shall not be restricted by transportation practices.
Transportation shall be provided to pupils under
a free choice policy on the same basis as it is
provided to other pupils attending the same
school.
8. Notice. All notices to pupils and their par
ents or guardians respecting the initial assign
ment, reassignment or transfer to or within schools
shall state simply and clearly:
a. The applicable rules and administrative
practices regarding the rights which the desegre
gation plan accords pupils with respect to initial
assignment, reassignment, or transfer, to or with
in the schools;
b. The times, dates, and places at which
pupils, or their parents or guardians may exercise
their rights under the desegregation plan; and
c. Assurance that school personnel will
neither favor nor penalize any pupil because of
the choice he makes in the exercise of his rights
under the desegregation plan.
E. Rate of Desegregation.
1. Every school system which submits a plan
that fails to provide for the desegregation of every
grade in all the schools within its system by the
beginning of the school year 1965-66 must sustain
the burden of justifying the delay and must in
clude in its desegregation plan a time schedule
for such desegregation.
2. The fall of 1967 is set as the target date
for the extension of desegregation to all grades
of the school system as a qualification for Federal
financial assistance.
3. On or before January 31, 1966, the Com
missioner of Education may modify the policies
respecting desegregation of elementary and sec
ondary schools in order to determine eligibility
for Federal financial assistance in the 1966-1967
school year and thereafter.
4. Every school system beginning desegrega
tion must provide for a substantial good faith
start on desegregation starting with the 1965-
1966 school year, in light of the 1967 target date.
a. Such a good faith start shall normally
require provision in the plan that:
(1) Desegregation will be extended to at least
four grades for the 1965-1966 school year; the
grades covered must include the first and any
other lower grade, the first and last high school
grades, and the lowest grade of junior high where
schools are so organized;
(2) Any pupil newly enrolled in the school
system or in any school within the system (e.g.,
who has newly established a residence within the
district) shall be enrolled in and assigned to a
particular school without regard to race, color, or
national origin;
(3) No pupil shall be publicly supported in a
school outside the school district unless such sup
port is available without regard to race, color, or
national origin to all pupils residing in the school
district; and in any case no student shall be re
quired to attend a school outside the school dis
trict in order to maintain racial segregation or
minimize desegregation in a school within the t
district;
(4) Any pupil attending a school to which he
was originally assigned on the basis of his race,
color, or national origin shall have the right, ir
respective of whether or not the grade he is at
tending has been desegregated, to transfer to an
other school in order to take a course of study
for which he is qualified and which is not availa
ble in the school he is attending;
(5) That any student attending any grade,
whether or not fully desegregated, at a school to
which he originally was assigned on the basis of
his race or color shall have an opportunity, sub
ject to the requirements and criteria applicable
equally to all students without regard to race or
color, to transfer to any other school in which he
originally would have been entitled to enroll but
for his race or color; and
(6) Steps will be taken for the desegregation
of faculty, at least including such actions as joint
faculty meetings and joint inservice programs.
b. In exceptional cases the Commissioner
may, for good cause shown, accept plans which
provide for desegregation of fewer or other grades
or defer other provisions set out in (a) above for
the 1965-1966 school year, provided that desegre
gation for the 1965-1966 school year shall extend
to at least two grades, including the first grade,
and provided that the school districts, in such
case, shall take into account the steps which would
be required to meet the 1967 target date.
VI. COMPLIANCE REPORTS
A. All recipients of Federal financial assistance
are subject to the requirements respecting com
pliance information set forth in section 80.6 of the
Departmental Title VI Regulations.
B. Initial Compliance Report. If an Initial Com
pliance Report is required, it shall contain suffi
cient detailed information to provide an accurate
picture of past and present racial conditions in
each school district. Precise, up-to-the-minute
statistics are not required. The material furnished
should be what fair-minded school officials be
lieve to be true and what reasonable men would
think necessary for a rational appraisal of racial
practices in the system. The following list, not
intended to be exclusive, suggests the kinds of
information that should be covered by an initial
compliance report:
1. A racial breakdown of the school-age pop
ulation residing in the district by attendance zone;
2. The racial distribution of pupils, by school,
throughout the system;
3. The racial distribution of teaching and staff
personnel, by school, throughout the system;
4. Maps, which need not be of professional
quality, where useful or necessary to demonstrate |
such things as school locations, attendance zones,
or school bus routes;
5. Past and present rules and practices for the ^
initial assignment, reassignment, and transfer o
pupils within the system; and
6. The status of appeals or other pending P r0 "
ceedings, if any, if a court order for desegregation
is submitted.
C. Subsequent Compliance Reports. Subse
quently submitted compliance reports may rele
to previous reports and should report with tn
same scope and detail on developments since tn
last previous report.
VII. DEFINITIONS — INITIAL ASSIGNMENT,
REASSIGNMENT AND TRANSFER
As used herein:
A. The term initial assignment means the as
signment to a particular school in the school sy
tem of any pupil who:
1. Is to attend pre-school, kindergarten,
first grade; or
2. For the first time enters a school of
level (such as junior high or high school) .
having completed a school of less advanced I
or
3. For the first time enters the school sy steIfl
at any level; or
4. Becomes eligible, or would become e ^^ a .
aside from considerations of race, color, or ^
tional origin, to attend some other school ® ce
school system by reason of a change of resi ^
B. The term reassignment means the assign® ^
of a pupil to the school he currently atten
an additional period of time.
C. The term transfer means the assign®
a pupil to a school of the same level other
the one he currently attends (e.g., transfer
one elementary school to another).
VIII. ALTERNATIVE ADMINISTRATIVE pB °
CEDURES
. J gj f (fl
If an administrative procedure pro vl
herein is not administratively feasible ® ^
ticular situation, the Commissioner may a c _
alternative procedure if he determines tna
accomplish the same purpose.
April, 1965
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