(JTA) — When the White House laid out its response to reports of spiking antisemitism after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, it focused on one legal provision: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination at federally funded campuses and school districts.
Working with Jewish groups, the Department of Education encouraged people to file Title VI complaints in cases where students faced antisemitic discrimination. Since Oct. 7, the department’s Office of Civil Rights has opened 79 investigations into discrimination based on “shared ancestry.” The majority of those cases are believed to be about antisemitism, Islamophobia or anti-Arab discrimination.
Seasoned civil rights groups, emerging activists and other lone individuals have filed complaints under the statute. The resulting investigations span 27 states (to date), and every kind of educational institution from K-12 schools to public and private universities to for-profit online schools.
READ MORE: Our feature story on how Title VI became the “Wild West” for Jews on campus.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has been tracking these investigations, collecting information about who filed the originating complaints and what the investigations are about — information that the federal government does not disclose publicly. JTA has also filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain more information about these investigations.
The department pledges to investigate every complaint it receives. Schools under investigation can face pressure to come to “resolution agreements” to address allegations of improper behavior, or risk losing federal funds.
This is what we know about the federal “shared ancestry” civil rights investigations opened since Oct. 7. Please contact us if you have information about any of the cases listed here that you would like to share to make our coverage more complete.
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