On Friday, December 21, 2018, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally rescinded guidance created by the Obama administration on school discipline.

Earlier that week, the White House had released a report on school safety recommending that the school discipline guidance be dropped, and it was expected that the action by the Department of Education would soon follow.

The Obama-era school discipline guidance, which was aimed at reducing the number of suspensions and expulsions for students of color, had been the subject of a great deal of debate.

Education Next published a forum earlier in 2018 on whether the Trump administration should retain, revise, or rescind the guidance.

In an earlier article for Education Next, “Civil Rights Enforcement Gone Haywire,” Richard A. Epstein analyzed the legal reasoning behind the guidance.

-Education Next