POPS-Parents Offering Parents Support

If you missed the OCR-Office for Civil Rights workshop provided by the PROParents organization today in Columbia, then here are the highlights. 

Ms. Gaymon, Brandon, & I arrived at the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute at 9am. We were greeted by PROParents staff & signed in as we entered the auditorium. We noticed Mr. Alexander Choi was already speaking, so we seated ourselves down in seats toward the front.  There were only a few people attending when we first arrived, but after about 30mins. several people started flowing in. The PROParents staff gave each of us little index cards to write down any questions we may have, so they held question & answer until the end of the presentation. 

Now for the information that was shared....

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), is a part of the US Department of Education, has headquarters in Washington, DC.  They also have 12 enforcement offices across the US:  

            Boston, MA, New York, NY, Philadelphia, PA (Eastern Division) 

            Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, Dallas, TX (Southern Division) 

            Chicago, IL, Cleveland, OH, Kansas City, MO (Midwestern Division) 

            Denver, CO, San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA (Western Division)  

OCR has jurisdiction over programs and activities that receive financial assistance from the Department of Education. These may include, for example:

            --State education agencies 

            --Elementary and secondary school systems 

            --Colleges and universities 

            --State vocational rehabilitation agencies

OCR also has jurisdiction under the Title II of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits disability discrimination by public entities whether or not they received financial assistance. 

OCR's Mission is to:

            --Ensure equal access to education programs and Promote educational excellence throughout the nation.

            --Enforces several civil right laws. Together, these laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, and age, as well as discrimination against certain patriotic youth groups.   OCR accomplishes its mission through vigorous enforcement of civil rights. 

If you have a complaint against the school district or any other entity, Please make sure you file a complaint within 180 days of the alleged incident.  They will investigate if you can show flaws in the procedural placement of your child or if there has been a discrimination against your child.  Also, OCR will initiate some cases on their own if they see a pattern of things going on within a district. They will then investigate a particular district to find incidents where they did not dot their i's or cross their t's, so to speak.  It only takes one case to investigate within a district. 

One thing that Mr. Choi stressed to us heavily is: Please make sure that if ever someone tells you something from the district or any other entity that you just don't agree with, Please make sure that you always ask for it in writing...

A complaint of discrimination can be filed by anyone who believes that an education institution that receives Federal financial assistance has discriminated against someone on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. The person or organization filing the complaint need not be a victim of the alleged discrimination, but may complain on behalf of another person or group.

An important responsibility of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability against students with disabilities. OCR receives numerous complaints and inquiries in the area of elementary and secondary education involving Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (Section 504). Most of these concern identification of students who are protected by Section 504 and the means to obtain an appropriate education for such students.

Section 504 is a federal law designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Section 504 provides: "No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . . ."

OCR enforces Section 504 in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from ED. Recipients of this Federal financial assistance include public school districts, institutions of higher education, and other state and local education agencies. The regulations implementing Section 504 in the context of educational institutions appear at 34 C.F.R. Part 104.

The Section 504 regulations require a school district to provide a "free appropriate public education" (FAPE) to each qualified student with a disability who is in the school district's jurisdiction, regardless of the nature or severity of the disability. Under Section 504, FAPE consists of the provision of regular or special education and related aids and services designed to meet the student's individual educational needs as adequately as the needs of nondisabled students are met.

If you need more information about the Office for Civil Rights, Please contact them at www.ed.gov/ocr

U.S. Department of Education
Office for Civil Rights
Customer Service Team
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-1100

Telephone: 1-800-421-3481
FAX: 202-245-6840; TDD: 877-521-2172
Email: OCR@ed.gov