EQUITY GAPS AND STUDENT RIGHTS DURING COVID-19
On June 5th, our Senior Counsel Amy Meek spoke about education rights issues associated with COVID-19 for a virtual conference hosted by the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices (TREP) Project.
These were her introductory remarks:
I’m Amy Meek, a Senior Counsel in education equity at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Our education equity work seeks to protect and promote access to education by addressing the individual and systemic barriers that disproportionately impact historically disadvantaged communities, using an explicit racial justice lens.
The COVID-19 crisis compounds and exposes already crippling racial equity gaps in education. School closures disproportionately affect marginalized students, including students of color, low-income students, students with disabilities, English-language learner students, students in immigrant families, students in foster care, migrant students, homeless students, LGBTQ students, and students in the juvenile justice system. For many of these students, these are intersecting identities. Many of these students – particularly Black students – live in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus in a variety of ways. I also want to acknowledge the racial trauma that many Black students, families, and educators may also be experiencing from anti-Black police violence and news coverage in this moment.
We know that many marginalized students face multiple barriers to accessing remote learning. Many students lack their own devices or reliable internet access. They may not have a quiet space to learn – especially for homeless students and students in the foster care system. Their caretakers may not have the time or capacity to support their learning, and students themselves may be essential workers or taking on additional caregiving responsibilities. And students are experiencing a variety of stresses to their mental health and social-emotional well-being, as well as physical well-being.
Many schools have quickly adapted to address the challenge of providing meals, services, technology, and educational services to students in this difficult time. Unfortunately, we still see major equity gaps. To name a few: Many students with disabilities are receiving inadequate services or none at all. Language access remains a major challenge for English learner students and families. Schools have not been able to locate many homeless students. And of course, many students still do not have the technology needed to participate in online learning.
What does this mean for students’ rights? For one thing, schools should anticipate that many students will be able to seek compensatory education & services, either now or in the future, to address these gaps. Compensatory education is one remedy when schools fail to adequately serve students with disabilities, who make up about 14 percent – about 1 in 7 students. This proportion is likely to be even higher now, because students with needs stemming from complex trauma can seek accommodations under the disability laws. Schools have a legal duty to identify students with disabilities so that they can provide them services, which should include identifying students who need trauma-related supports and services.
It also means that schools should take a “do no harm” approach to assessments – using them primarily to identify which students may need compensatory education and additional services, and not to fail or retain students, award grades, or rank school quality. Given the glaring inequities in the education that students are receiving, standardized tests are likely to disproportionately penalize and push out students of color, students with disabilities, and other marginalized students, based on the barriers they face rather than their own effort or skills. And decisions based on these grading or testing systems are likely to be systematically biased as a result – violating civil rights laws that prohibit this type of disparate impact.
Addressing these gaps will require long-term planning and allocating funding for longer-term investments in schools, at a time when many districts are inadequately funded and many states are likely to slash budgets even further. In many states, however, a minimally adequate level of school funding is mandated under the constitution. Because states can’t run deficits, more federal funding is desperately needed. While the federal CARES Act funding can be used to address some of these needs, the federal government must provide additional funding to avoid gutting state education budgets – and not require states to funnel money to private schools serving high-income students. In this process, states and districts should also examine the equity impact of their funding allocations: for example, I would be remiss not to mention that the cost of Chicago Public Schools’ $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department would more than cover their COVID-19 emergency expenditures to date on technology, educational materials, and student meal delivery.
Finally, I want to note that accountability to equity requires that families be part of the decision-making process for how schools respond to this crisis. Schools and districts should seek community input that prioritize the voices of marginalized students. This isn’t for the benefit of families -- it is to inform stronger policymaking. No matter how strong our intentions, equity gaps will continue to persist if we don't engage the lived experiences of our communities in finding solutions together.
Thank you.