Title in Title Case
Statement by Martin H. GerryDirectOr, Office.for Civil RightsDepartment of Health, Educatica andWelfare yesterday, I met with Chancellor Irving Anker of the NewYork City schoolsystem to advise him of my conclusionthat the achool system is violating civilrights laws which prohibit discrimination againstminority, female, and handi-capped students. This decision concludes a compliance review of theNew York City,publicschools – the largest civil rights investigation of a publiceducation insti-tution ever undertaken.The date for completion of thP review was set byUnited States District Court Judge John Sirica as partof an order entered in the,case of Brown v. Mathews. –SpecifIcallyi we have informed the school system that it hasviolated Title VIof the Civil Rights Act of 19644 which prohibitsdiscrimination on the basis of’rice, color, national origin; Title IX of the EducationAmendments of 1972,which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex;and Section 504 of the Rehabi-litation Act of 1973, which prohibits discriminationagainst physically or men-tally handicapped individuals. The findings of the review are: – Minorities are receivinglower amounts of local resources for basiceduca-tion, in poorer quality facilities which have a morelimited range of curricula.
- Minorities are segregated in elementary school classrooms andspecial edu-cation classes and are given unequal educationalservices. – Students whose primarylangauge is other than English are barredfrom mean-ingful participation in education programs.
-
- Minority and femalestudents in junior high/intermediate and highschoolsare channeled to less desirable and morerestricted academic, vocational andspecial programs and are provided with lesseffective counseling services. . Minority junior high/intermediate and high schoolstudents are treated dif-ferently and more harshly than non-minority studentsdisciplined for the sameoffense.
- 7Non-ambulatory students are given a significantlyshorter instructional day.and are confronted by architectural barrierswhich deny them the opportunity toparticipate fullY in the system’s education program. My office has asked for a plan within 60 dayswhich will remedy the discrimina-tion and provide corrective action.We have offered technical assistance totheschool system in developing a plan to meet therequirements of Title VI, Title IXand Section 504. 2 JAN 2 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.