Federal civil rights investigation of Cedar Rapids school district drags on

CEDAR RAPIDS — Three classes of high schoolers have graduated from the Cedar Rapids Community School District since the U.S. Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation into the district two and a half years ago.

While those 3,125 students have cycled out of the district, the Office of Civil Rights investigation that was spurred by complaints of race discrimination remains ongoing.

'When it intermittently crops up, I think the typical person would not think this is the same conversation that started in 2014,' Superintendent Brad Buck said. 'When people hear about it again, they think — is this a new one? No, this is the one from 2014.'

The timespan of a typical investigation — about six months, according to a Department spokesman — has come and gone five times over since the investigation began in January 2014.

'Some take much longer due to the complexity of issues involved,' the spokesman said, declining to provide additional information on the ongoing investigation.

The federal probe began in January 2014 after the department received a complaint contending the district discriminated against black students, according to a January 2014 letter from the Department to then-Superintendent David Benson.

That complaint was filed in December 2013 and concerned events that occurred in September and October 2013.

The students involved in the complaint — identified in the Department's letter only as Student A and Student B — attended Washington High during the 2013-14 school year.

According to the complaint, the district failed to respond to the two black students' reports of bullying. Meanwhile, the complaint says the district did respond to similar complaints made by white students.

Student A's parent then complained to the district of race discrimination.

When Student A assaulted her bully, the complaint said, she was suspended, then administratively transferred to an alternative school on Sept. 17, 2013 — a move the complaint says was an act of district retaliation against the parent who spoke up.

The complaint also says both black students were disciplined for dress code violations while white students violating the dress code were not.

As part of the investigation, representatives of the department's Office of Civil Rights visited eight schools — Metro Alternative High, Kennedy High, Washington High, McKinley Middle, Taft Middle, Franklin Middle, Harrison Elementary and Grant Elementary — in September 2014.

In an Aug. 15, 2014, email requested by The Gazette, Benson alerted school board members and district staff to the upcoming site visits.

'I expect the OCR to find disparate treatment of African-American Students in Graduation Rate, Rates of Suspensions, Rates of Identification in the Gifted Program and Rates of Identification in Special Education,' Benson wrote. 'All of these areas have been reported to the Board over my tenure.'

Thirty months into the investigation, Buck — who succeeded Benson as superintendent in July 2015 — said the district is eager to receive the federal report and for the investigation to close.

Investigators during summer break requested updated questionnaires from the district, and school principals are working to complete those this summer, said Paul Hayes, the district's director of learning supports.

The initial questionnaires had asked for details on schools' disciplinary policies and practices, and district principals filled them out in September 2014.

Hayes said beyond staffing changes, the updated questionnaires will reflect a stronger emphasis on restorative disciplinary practices rather than punitive measures in schools.

'A lot of it actually was underway before the investigation,' Hayes said. 'What the investigation has done is provided, obviously, a sense of urgency in making sure the implementation is done and it's done comprehensively.'

Buck said the district is aware of racial gaps in its data — only 14 percent of Cedar Rapids students are black, for example, yet 45 percent of suspensions are against black students — and is working to close them.

The district expects to receive a list of corrective actions from the Department of Education when the investigation closes. Buck said he and district officials have reviewed other investigations' outcomes in an effort to get a sense of what those corrective measures might be.

'I would say we've already engaged in a significant amount of the work that often results in the outcomes of these,' Buck said. 'I think we've situated ourselves well — to the benefit of our kids and teachers — to get at the very work that is being reviewed here.'