The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will hold a community meeting Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, at the Fort Bend Independent School District Administrative Annex Building in Sugar Land, Texas. The meeting will focus on discipline in elementary and secondary schools and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.
The meeting is being held in conjunction with OCR's compliance review of the Fort Bend Independent School District involving the discipline of African-American students. All stakeholders – including parents, students, community groups, and community members at-large – are invited to attend and meet with federal officials.
For more information or to request accommodations for persons with disabilities or language assistance for those with limited English proficiency, contact Rachel McGregor at 214-661-9632.
The mission of the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation through vigorous enforcement of civil rights. OCR is responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination by educational institutions on the basis of disability, race, color, national origin, sex, and age, as well as the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act of 2001. For more information about OCR, see http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/index.html.
For details on how OCR handles civil rights cases, visit http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/complaintprocess.html.