Case Particulars

Tribunal

Office for Civil Rights, Department of Education

Date Filed

July 14, 2023

Docket No.

N/A

Case Status

OCR Complaint Filed; Case dismissed as “moot” because because NYU had “permanently discontinued” the challenged program

Case Overview

New York University conducted a series monthly workshops for white parents who express the intent of building “equitable, powerful, multiracial parent communities in their schools.” The program was hosted by the Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative at NYU’s Metropolitan `1 for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, which is part of NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

While it appears the 2019 FIAR workshops were not limited exclusively to white parents, the programming thenceforth included more explicit racial limitations, such as in 2021, when describing that year’s FIAR program as “anti- racist training to white parents to help them identify and combat the destructive beliefs and patterns of internalized white supremacy.” The 2023 program application, in fact, was entitled “From Integration to Anti-Racism: How We Show Up As White Parents In Multiracial NYC Public Schools,” describing the FIAR as being designed “specifically for white public school parents in New York City committed to becoming anti-racist.”

Equal Protection Project is the Complainant in this matter, which went under evaluation by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. LIF received a letter on January 10, 2024 from OCR stating that NYU had informed OCR that “the University’s Office of Equal Opportunity opened a race discrimination investigation of the Program” and, upon completion of its internal investigation, it “permanently discontinued the Program.” NYU also told OCR that it “provided Title VI training to relevant University staff members.”