Education Department Issues DEI Letter; Institutional Compliance by February 28
Published February 24, 2025
By AACOM Government Relations
Federal Policy
Higher Education
OME Advocate
- On February 14, 2025, the Acting Assistant Secretary for the Department of Education (ED)’s Office for Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague letter (DCL) regarding discrimination based on race, color and national origin in K-12 and higher education.
- The letter states that its purpose is to “clarify and reaffirm the nondiscrimination obligations of schools and other entities that receive federal financial assistance from the United States Department of Education” under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and “other relevant authorities.”
- The Department intends to take “appropriate measures to assess compliance” beginning no later than February 28, 2025.
- The DCL instructs all covered educational institutions to:
- Ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law;
- Cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends; and
- Cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses or aggregators that are being used by institutions to circumvent prohibited uses of race.
- Although the DCL does not itself have the force and effect of law, it signals ED’s intent to enforce relevant civil rights laws consistent with the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard, which found race-conscious admissions policies unconstitutional.
- On February 21, 2025, a Maryland federal district court entered a nationwide preliminary injunction of key aspects of the Trump Administration’s two diversity, equity and inclusion executive orders. The nationwide injunction gives institutions of higher education reprieve from the executive orders but not ED’s DCL.
- For further information and analysis, you may view the American Council on Education’s webinar and AACOM’s 2023 webinar series on race conscious admissions following the Students for Fair Admissions decision.
- AACOM will monitor enforcement of the DCL and provide resources to the OME community as needed. If you have questions or comments, please contact aacomgr@aacom.org.
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