WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s Department of Education has launched investigations and withheld federal funding from school districts over diversity, equity and inclusion programs aimed at addressing racial inequities, including the Chicago Public Schools Black Student Success Program and the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Black Student Achievement Plan.

The Education Department said programs receiving federal funding must follow the law, which prohibits discrimination based on race. "Serving student needs and following the law are not irreconcilable mandates. Advocates and educators have no reason to stress if they abide by the law," said Amelia Joy, a department spokesperson.

Chicago Public Schools lost more than $20 million in federal funding after refusing to end its Black Student Success Program, which aims to increase access to advanced coursework for Black students and reduce overly harsh discipline. The Los Angeles Unified School District created its Black Student Achievement Plan following student activism after the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Initially, the district selected schools partly based on Black student enrollment but later revised its criteria to focus on absenteeism and test scores, asserting the program is open to all students.

In 2023, the conservative group Defending Education filed a complaint alleging discrimination against non-Black students in the Los Angeles program. After the district changed its criteria, the Education Department in 2024 said it saw no evidence of a violation. When Defending Education refiled its complaint in 2026, the department’s Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation. "Our goal is not to make LA Unified a target, but rather to make sure that when people say that they are eliminating racially discriminatory aspects of programs, that they’re actually making good on their word," said Sarah Parshall Perry, senior legal fellow at Defending Education.

Michael Pillera, director of educational equity issues at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, criticized the administration’s approach. "It’s literally flipping the purpose of civil rights law on its head, not just harming Black students and students of color, but entire school communities," he said. He added the approach is "unmoored from the actual history of our country and untethered to the reality of life in this country."

The Trump administration has also discontinued grants for teacher training and mental health staffing when diversity was mentioned in recruitment materials and stripped funding from districts using it to create racially diverse magnet schools. The Justice Department has investigated teacher recruitment programs in Rhode Island and Iowa and released districts from longstanding court-ordered desegregation plans.