Reinstating Commonsense School Discipline Policies
This Executive Order (EO 14280), signed April 23, 2025, directs federal education and law-enforcement officials to change how the federal government approaches school discipline. It challenges prior federal guidance that used racial disciplinary statistics (the so-called disparate-impact approach) to identify possible Title VI (race discrimination) violations, and it directs new guidance, coordination, and reporting aimed at promoting what it calls “commonsense” discipline that focuses on student behavior rather than on aggregate racial disparities. The EO instructs agencies to review and inventory past discipline-related Title VI activity, to limit programs that promote what it labels “discriminatory-equity-ideology-based” discipline, and to produce model discipline policies intended to protect safety and order in classrooms. The EO could shift federal enforcement and guidance away from policies that encourage schools to examine racial disparities in discipline, and toward stronger emphasis on traditional behavior-based discipline. That may affect how school districts collect and use discipline data, how federal civil-rights investigations are framed, and how federal funds are reviewed for programs addressing discipline and equity.
Key Points
- 1New guidance within 30 days: The Secretary of Education, with the Attorney General, must issue new guidance to state and local education agencies about Title VI and school discipline, clarifying obligations not to engage in racial discrimination in discipline.
- 2Enforcement authority: The Secretary of Education is directed to take appropriate action against state or local education agencies that fail to comply with Title VI protections in discipline practices.
- 3Coordination with states: Within 60 days, the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General must start coordinating with Governors and State Attorneys General on preventing racial discrimination in school discipline.
- 4DoD and military families: Within 90 days, the Secretary of Defense must issue a revised school discipline code aimed at better protecting education for children of military families.
- 5Comprehensive report within 120 days: The Secretary of Education (with the AG, HHS Secretary, and DHS Secretary) must submit a report including (i) an inventory/analysis of all Title VI discipline-related investigations since 2009; (ii) assessment of the role of federally funded nonprofits in promoting what the EO calls discriminatory-equity-ideology-based discipline and recommendations to prevent federal funds flowing to such programs; (iii) review of discipline policies and curricular options that do not promote that equity ideology; and (iv) model “commonsense” discipline policies rooted in traditional values and safety.
- 6The EO adopts definitions from a prior January 29, 2025 Executive Order on “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.”
- 7It defines “Behavior Modification Techniques” broadly as discipline policies or practices that incorporate or are based on “discriminatory equity ideology.”
- 8General provisions state the EO must be implemented consistent with law and available appropriations, does not alter agency statutory authority, and does not create enforceable individual rights.