DEI Updates: Federal Court Decisions Impact OCR Dear Colleague Letter and Title VI Certification Form

On April 24, 2025, two federal judges issued decisions in lawsuits brought against the U.S. Department of Education (the “Department”) related to DEI in schools.

The first decision concerned a lawsuit brought in part by the National Education Association (the “NEA Case”). The second decision concerned a lawsuit brought in part by another teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers (the “AFT Case”). Both suits challenge four efforts from the Department: (1) the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) Dear Colleague Letter regarding DEI in schools, (2) the FAQs Document subsequently issued by the Department further explaining the contours of their letter, (3) the Department’s End DEI online portal for reporting complaints concerning DEI activities in schools, and (4) the Department’s recent requirement that all K-12 schools submit a certification form to their respective state education agencies affirming compliance with Title VI and that they do not promote “illegal DEI”. In short, the lawsuits allege that these efforts are unconstitutionally vague in not clearly defining “illegal DEI”, violate the First Amendment by impermissibly restricting speech based on its content, and were not issued following proper procedure.

The impact of the judges’ decisions on the challenged efforts is as follows: 

1. OCR Dear Colleague Letter: The federal government is temporarily blocked from enforcing the Letter. The judges found that the government did not follow proper procedure when issuing the letter, and that it is likely unconstitutionally vague and an impermissible speech regulation as argued by the plaintiffs.

2. FAQs Document: The federal government is also temporarily blocked from enforcing the content of the document to the extent it is in furtherance of the Dear Colleague Letter.

3. End DEI Portal: The federal government may maintain the portal, but is nonetheless temporarily blocked from initiating any enforcement actions based on complaints submitted in connection with the Dear Colleague Letter or FAQs document.

4. Title VI Certification Form: The government is effectively temporarily blocked from requiring that schools submit the certification form to their state education agencies. Prior to the rulings, the Illinois State Board of Education (“ISBE”) had already published a letter stating that, due to the ongoing litigation, it would not be requiring school districts to submit the form.

An important caveat: As acknowledged in the judges’ decisions, while the government is temporarily restricted in the manner described above, the Department is nonetheless still permitted to enforce Title VI’s prohibition against discrimination based on race, color and national origin by schools, based on existing law and regulations. The key limitation is that the Department cannot initiate new enforcement action based on its recent public efforts and positions while the two lawsuits proceed through the litigation process.

The government is likely to appeal the judges’ rulings.

Robbins Schwartz will continue to monitor for updates in these cases, communications from state educational authorities, and other changes to the DEI legal landscape affecting schools. Please contact your RS attorney with questions or for further discussion.