California school district faces civil rights complaint over programs for Latino youth

A conservative parents’ group known for targeting diversity and equity programs in schools has filed a federal civil rights complaint against Oakland Unified School District, claiming the district discriminates on the basis of race and sex by offering targeted programs for Latino boys and youth of color.

The complaint was filed by the organization Defending Education with the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The Arlington, Va., nonprofit group cites the district’s Latino men and boys program, a Latinx mentoring and achievement program, professional development to help preschool teachers support the development of boys of color, and various other programs designed to support students of color.

The group, founded in 2021 to fight what it sees a “political bias” in the nation’s public schools and backed by major conservative philanthropies, is asking the Department of Education to open a civil rights investigation into OUSD for violating Title VI, which prohibits racial discrimination; Title IX, prohibiting sex discrimination; and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

“In a ham-fisted attempt to guarantee student ‘equity’ outcomes, Oakland USD has sponsored a multitude of programs geared toward only one race or sex in violation of federal law,” Sarah Parshall Perry, Defending Education’s vice president and senior legal fellow, said in a statement. “Cash stipends, tutoring assistance, wellness programs and food and housing benefits for only one group of students, to the exclusion of others, are just the tip of the iceberg in one of California’s largest school districts.”

OUSD did not respond to a request for comment.

In Oakland Unified, about 33% of students meet grade level standards in reading and 27% in math. For Latino students, that number is far lower — 22% are proficient in reading and 15% in math — as is it for Black students — at 21% and 13%, respectively, according to state standardized tests. In 2024, the graduation rate for OUSD’s Latino students was 68%, compared with 74% of students overall.

The district contracts with the Unity Council, a Fruitvale organization, to run the Latino men and boys program at four OUSD middle schools and two OUSD high schools; and the Latinx mentoring program at three OUSD high schools. The programs are part of the district’s effort to increase the graduation rates for Latino youth and to support their mental and physical health, and their higher education and career planning. The Latinx mentoring program grew out of the Latino men and boys program, which expanded to include girls and nonbinary youth in 2019.

The Unity Council declined to comment on the complaint.

Those programs and others are hallmarks of OUSD’s Office of Equity, which was established in 2016 to address persistent racial inequities in academic achievement in Oakland schools. The office has programs supporting African American, Arab American, Pacific Islander and Latino students.

“Race-neutral approaches are not sufficient to repair the damage that’s come as a result of a long history of race-based discrimination, exclusion and miseducation — in our nation as well as inside of Oakland Unified School District,” a 2025 report from the Office of Equity found. “In order to heal past harms and close gaps in access and opportunity — which lead to gaps in academic outcomes — we must take intentional, tailored, targeted measures.”

The programs have shown extraordinary impact. In January 2024, for example, 78% of students in OUSD’s Latino student achievement programs had attendance rates of 95% or higher, compared with 39% of Latino students overall.

It’s not the first time the district has faced a backlash over its diversity and inclusion programs. In 2023, for example, after a notice for a playgroup for students of color at Chabot Elementary School was shared online, the playgroup’s organizers received racist emails and a bomb threat was called into the school, forcing classes to be canceled for the day.

Defending Education has also brought complaints against other East Bay districts and organizations. Last year, the group alleged that San Leandro schools had violated civil rights laws with programs supporting Black boys through partnerships with the Kingmakers of Oakland organization.

The New York Times found that the Office of Civil Rights has opened nearly a dozen federal investigations in response to complaints from Defending Education over school diversity programs and school policies protecting the rights of transgender students.

The Office of Civil Rights currently has an open investigation into OUSD over allegations that an unsanctioned pro-Palestinian teach-in held in December 2023 was tantamount to discrimination against Jewish students. The California Department of Education also filed a lawsuit against OUSD earlier this year, alleging that the district failed to remedy discriminatory environments for Jewish students in several incidents, including the teach-in, the distribution of a map of the Middle East that did not include Israel, and the decision by one high school to briefly fly the Palestinian flag from the school flagpole.

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This story was originally published by The Oaklandside and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.