Case Particulars

Tribunal

Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR)

Date Filed

April 17, 2024

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed

Case Overview

EPP brought this civil rights complaint against the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (“IMSA”) for creating, supporting and promoting a summer immersion program – called the PROMISE-Summer Enrichment in Academics in Mathematics and Science (SEAMS) Program – for Illinois students between their 8th and 9th grade years that engages in invidious discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin. Students who identify as black, African American or Latinx are universally eligible for the Summer 2024 PROMISE-SEAMS Program. Applicants who fall outside of those racial categories, however, are automatically ineligible for the program unless they can demonstrate that they meet the guidelines for being “rural” or of “low-socioeconomic status.”

EPP is the Complainant and the case is under evaluation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.