Recognizing and Responding to Discrimination and Harassment Complaints Consistent with Board Policy
Increasingly, issues of legally-compliant responses to discrimination claims turn on the school district's initial recognition that the alleged conduct falls under the umbrella of discrimination. Too often, a school district's informal and poorly documented response to a situation (even a situation where there is insufficient evidence to support a finding of discrimination) is problematic due to the failure to recognize claims of discrimination. That failure is compounded when the complainant is dissatisfied and takes the matter further, to OCR or a court.
In order to manage a school's anti-discrimination policies, key personnel must have the ability to recognize when a parent or student's complaint is one of discrimination, regardless of the complainant's use of particular words to describe the conduct. By paying attention to which allegations from parents and students should be categorized as discrimination, and by implementing policy (particularly, for those utilizing IASB PRESS, Policy 2:260) consistent to the longstanding guidance from OCR and the courts, school districts can put themselves in the best position to deal with these types of complaints.
- Who are your complaint managers?
- How do you publicize the complaint process?
- How do you train all employees on the discrimination and retaliation policy? (And will they remember they were trained on the policy?)
- How do you document the process? Is your policy your guide?