Milwaukee Public Schools is under federal investigation based on allegations about how the district considers race in disciplinary practices, the U.S. Department of Education said Aug. 18.
The department’s Office of Civil Rights announced its investigations into MPS and another school district – in Fayetteville, Arkansas – as it shared new guidelines against school discipline policies that aim to reduce racial disparities.
Complying with an April executive order, the new guidelines say schools are violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if they “evaluate the racial outcomes of their discipline policies” and “make decisions based on or because of those racial outcomes.”
The new guidance is a reversal of a previous stance of the Office of Civil Rights, which had long considered disparate impacts of disciplinary policies to be grounds to investigate schools for racial discrimination.
MPS itself was the subject of an OCR investigation a decade ago for its high number of suspensions and expulsions of Black students.
MPS investigated for statement about ‘whiteness’
In a press release Aug. 18, federal officials said they were launching an investigation into MPS because Milwaukee education leaders had “derided facially neutral school policies as reflecting systemic ‘whiteness.'” The press release says the leaders were “seemingly encouraging school officials to consider race in disciplinary practices.”
Asked what they were referring to, a spokesperson for the Department of Education told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel they don’t comment on open investigations.
MPS officials said they received a notice from the Department of Education on Aug. 18 stating that it would be investigating whether MPS was “using race as a factor when considering disciplinary action against students.” MPS officials said they had no other information about what prompted the investigation.
MPS caught national attention in 2024 for a memo that appeared to share ways to reduce racial disproportionality in disciplinary practices, including examining practices that came from a “lens of Whiteness.” The memo had reportedly been shared with a “campus bias tip line” of Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization led by former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
It’s not clear from the Department of Education’s press release whether the OCR’s investigation stems from a complaint. While many OCR investigations are direct responses to complaints, the office can also launch its own compliance reviews, which can be based on information in media and other sources.
When the OCR opened an investigation into the Green Bay School District in May 2025, it was following a complaint filed by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty law firm. A spokesperson for the law firm said WILL didn’t file a complaint in the MPS case, but the firm issued a statement celebrating the MPS investigation.
The OCR investigation could include reviewing records, conducting interviews and making site visits. If officials find MPS violated civil rights law, they will seek to negotiate a resolution agreement under which MPS would commit to steps to address the violations. If MPS refused to comply, it could potentially lose federal funding.
A decade ago, MPS was accused of overly expelling Black students
The new investigation into MPS comes nearly a decade after the school district settled a previous multiyear OCR probe into its disciplinary practices.
At the time, OCR officials reviewed data from the 2011-12 school year, finding that Black students made up about 56% of enrollment, 83% of suspensions and 85% of expulsions. They identified more than 100 incidents in which Black students were expelled while “similarly-situated” white students were suspended for similar behavior.
In 2017, then-MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver settled the investigation by signing an agreement to equip staff with better ways to address student behavior, with the end goal of more equitable results.
Disparities have persisted. A March 2025 report to the Milwaukee School Board showed that Black students made up about 49% of enrollment and 75% of all suspensions so far that school year.
Rory Linnane covers K-12 education at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at rlinnane@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After changing standards, fed Ed Dept investigates MPS for discipline practices
Reporting by Rory Linnane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Rory Linnane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
