Dept. of Education investigating Evanston-Skokie school district for alleged racial discrimination​on May 2, 2025 at 8:45 am

COOK COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) — The federal Department of Education has launched an investigation into the Evanston-Skokie school district.

In launching that investigation, a U.S. Department of Education official is accusing this suburban district of segregating students based on race and other unconstitutional actions that the district in the past has denied doing.

The development comes just days after the education department started a similar investigation into Chicago Public Schools.

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The investigation into Evanston-Skokie School District 65 is based on a complaint filed by one of its teachers, Stacy Deemar.

In a federal civil rights lawsuit, Deemar argued “race-based programming” in the district, including “antiracist training” of teachers and student lessons discussing “whiteness” in negative terms, is “unconstitutional, illegal, [and] discriminatory.”

During President Donald Trump’s first administration, the U.S. Department of Education found the district, based on Deemar’s complaint, violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating based on race.

That finding was later suspended by President Joe Biden’s administration.

Now, after Deemar filed a second complaint with the help of the conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education is once again investigating the district.

The probe comes days after a similar move targeting Chicago Public Schools for its “Black Student Success Plan,” which the Trump administration argues discriminates against other races. It is a claim CPS denies.

READ MORE | US Dept. of Education investigating allegations of racial discrimination at Chicago Public Schools; CPS Black Student Success Plan committee head defends plan to close equity gap

ABC7 left messages Thursday night for Deemar, the Southeastern Legal Foundation and Evanston-Skokie School District 65 but did not hear back.