The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has reopened the investigation into a LAUSD program originally intended to help raise the academic achievement of black students, according to a letter released by the conservative group that alleges the program is a form of race-based discrimination.
This is the second time the group Defending Education has filed a civil rights complaint against LA Unified’s Black Student Achievement Plan.
In response to the group’s first complaint and a 2023-24 investigation under the Biden administration, the Los Angeles Unified School District overhauled a $120 million educational program for Black students and eliminated race as a factor in determining which children would get help.
The district agreed to end the exclusive focus on black students and to identify students and schools through factors other than race to handle investigations. The district did not change the name of the program, which is continuing.
in his letter to protect educationwhich the group released in a Press releaseThe Department of Education informed the organization that it is reopening its investigation into the LAUSD program based on the recent complaint.
Education officials did not respond to questions about the letter sent to the group.
The Education Department’s letter from the Department’s Office for Civil Rights to Protect Education is dated April 23 and signed by chief counsel Anamaria Loya. It said the office would investigate whether the program “violates Title VI and its implementing regulations by providing services and programs to students based on their race and by excluding students of other races from the program.”
The letter states that “the initiation of an investigation does not mean that OCR has made a final decision regarding eligibility.”
LAUSD did not directly address the new complaint, but said in a statement that the district “offers a wide range of programs and resources designed to support students regardless of race, ethnicity or other protected groups, consistent with state and federal law and the District’s nondiscrimination policy. BSAP is one of these programs and is open to any interested student.”
The Virginia-based group, formerly known as Parents Defending Education, describes its mission as opposing “destructive practices” in schools, including policies related to race, sexual orientation and gender identity. It filed the first complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights, alleging that the program violated the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by providing additional education services based on a student’s race.
During months of negotiations, federal officials told the district that the race-based program was legally untenable in light of several Supreme Court decisions, including a June 2023 decision that rejected consideration of race as a factor in college admissions.
In 2024, the Office for Civil Rights dismissed Defending Education’s complaint, and told the group that LAUSD had modified its program to be accessible to students “regardless of race, color, and national origin.”
The LAUSD overhaul angered supporters of the district’s Black Student Achievement Plan, known as BSAP, who wanted officials to stand by the original goals of the 2021 program, which had begun to yield some early, positive results. The effort added additional school staff, including a psychiatric social worker and counselors, specifically to help black students, who made up about 7% of the district’s students. BSAP schools also received funding to enhance curriculum and staff training.
Under the revised program submitted by L.A. Unified to the Office for Civil Rights, the district continues to help black students but also provides similar support to others with similar academic needs, L.A. Schools Superintendent. Alberto Carvalho told The Times in late 2024.
The group filed its second complaint in March 2026, citing a recording of a late 2024 LAUSD board meeting in which former board members Jackie Goldberg and Carvalho addressed students who came to the meeting chanting “Put black people back in BSAP.”
“Don’t they know nothing has changed?” Goldberg asked Carvalho as the students chanted.
“This is the way to move forward,” Carvalho told Goldberg. “Otherwise you actually end up with more compromises.”
Goldberg retired later that year. Carvalho is on paid administrative leave after the FBI raided his home and district office earlier this year, allegedly in connection with the procurement process of a failed AI chatbot product purchased by the school district.
Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president of Defending Education, wrote in a statement that her organization looks forward to the investigation and alleged “racial politics and misuse of federal funding” by LAUSD.
“LAUSD outwardly pretended as if they had ended racial discrimination in the district,” he wrote, “but information later revealed that they had not.”
Times staff writer Howard Bloom contributed to this report.
