On February 14, 2025, the Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Education sent a Dear Colleague Letter that felt more like a gut punch than a Valentine’s Day message. In it, the letter threatened to withdraw federal funds from schools at all levels (preschool through university) if they engage in any practices that take into account the race of their students or staff. The letter gives a short deadline of two weeks to comply.

Here is the letter: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in Light of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (PDF)

I took a look at how the educational community is responding to this Dear Colleague Letter.

EducationCounsel published the most detailed legal analysis of the Dear Colleague Letter that I found: EducationCounsel – Overreaching and Misleading: An Analysis of the U.S. Department of Education’s February 14, 2025, “Dear Colleague” Letter on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policies and Programs. At the end of the linked pdf are recommendations for schools attempting to make decisions in light of the Dear Colleague Letter, including the caution to “avoid over- or under-reacting.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education published Hitting Pause on the ‘Dear Colleague’ Letter (access requires making a free account). Here are some quotes from that article:

On February 14, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance that departs from the U.S. Supreme Court’s explicit ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA) and attempts to widely expand the scope of that ruling to areas that are not within the jurisdiction of the department or OCR.

The letter is far-reaching in its enforcement and a widely expansive distortion of the court’s ruling…. [The letter] is effectively demanding new obligations of institutions without the proper legal authority to do so…. The letter represents the imposition of an ideology on educational policy that infringes on institutional autonomy and the purview of how an institution can define its mission.

Even as it concedes in a footnote that the letter “does not have the force and effect of law,” the document nonetheless threatens institutions with compliance reviews. It implies that if colleges continue to consider diversity goals, they will lose federal funding. The U.S. Constitution, however, protects against the imposition of ideological conformity, especially when tied to federal funding.

The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) is taking a lead in resisting the Republican administration’s efforts to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Before this Dear Colleague Letter was released, NADOHE became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the anti-DEI executive orders signed by the Republican president in the first few days of his administration. They had initial success, yesterday, when a judge issued an injunction halting the implementation of the Republican president’s executive orders.

The NADOHE also wrote a response to the Dear Colleague Letter pointing out that it “makes sweeping statements in direct contradiction of prior guidance that the Department of Education issued in August 2023.”

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities issued a press release calling for the Dear Colleague letter to be rescinded and urged other institutions to join: HACU responds to Department of Education’s Dear Colleague letter – Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

The Education Civil Rights Blog published Regulation By Intimidation: OCR’s Title VI Dear Colleague Letter which points out all the difficulties that the Republican administration would have in attempting to enforce these edicts. There are many hoops that the government has to jump through to withdraw federal funding. One of the problems that the Republican administration will find is that they already fired many of the people who would be in charge of jumping through those hoops.

EdWeek published an article based on interviews with a variety of education experts. Trump Admin. Warns Schools: End Race-Based Programs or Risk Losing Funds. This article, more than many resources I found, focused on the K-12 educational institutions. I found this quote particularly useful:

Sasha Pudelski, the director of advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said that districts should continue to focus on doing what’s best for their students.

The good of students is not a focus of the Dear Colleague Letter and got lost in most of the commentary, too.

The Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state of Washington, Chris Reykdal, issued this response to the Dear Colleague Letter: State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s Statement on Federal Attempt to Prohibit Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs. In it, he advised that schools change nothing.

While the words have unfortunately been weaponized, diversity, equity, and inclusion have long been core components of our educational system.

I’ll share one last article because it’s a personal story about a small thing, which will be multiplied millions of times as educators weigh what’s best for their students against a political ideology that wants to ignore best practices for classrooms: Last week’s letter from the Department of Ed will make Kansas classrooms twitch, then suffer • Kansas Reflector.

An action that we can all take is to give feedback about the Dear Colleague Letter by sending an email to OCR@ed.gov. When I do that, I will also send copies to my Senators and my representative in Congress.