WASHINGTON >> The Education Department has withdrawn from an agreement to address disparities in discipline for Native American students at a South Dakota school system, saying it was wrongly rooted in efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

The decision reflects a shift in interpretation of anti-discrimination laws under President Donald Trump’s administration, which is planning to review other agreements the department’s Office for Civil Rights has struck with school systems around the U.S.

At issue in the Rapid City Area School District were questions of harsh discipline and access to advanced coursework for Native students, who have been less likely than their white peers to be in high-level classes. A federal investigation found Native students were roughly four times as likely to be suspended and five times as likely to be arrested compared with their white peers.

Last month, the Education Department told the district it would close its compliance review, saying in a letter the agreement violated civil rights laws because DEI was at its foundation.

Some parents who participated in listening sessions with the Office for Civil Rights said they felt their effort had been wasted.

“If there’s a fight, instead of restorative practices, in our schools the first thing they do is call the police who are right there in the schools as resource officers,” said Valeriah Big Eagle, a parent of three children in the school district and a leader at NDN Collective, an Indigenous advocacy group. “We know the school-to-prison pipeline is real for our kids, and the only way we can address that is by promoting restorative practices.”

The Education Department backed away from the Rapid City case because the resolution focused on racial balancing and tasked its lawyers with “micromanaging” how the schools disciplined students, a department official said.

Agreements at other schools lay out plans to address harassment and discrimination

Under Trump, the Education Department has threatened to cut funding from schools that refuse to disavow DEI, which his administration has described as discriminatory and illegal. The Office for Civil Rights, which was hit hard by reductions in staff, meantime has prioritized investigations into allegations of antisemitism.

The rollback of the South Dakota case reflects the department’s efforts to control school-level decisions on diversity initiatives, regardless of their legal basis, said Michael Pillera, director of educational equity issues at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

“It does feel unprecedented, and it does feel extreme,” Pillera said.

The Trump administration has rescinded one other civil rights resolution agreement with a school district, a case involving books removed from a Forsyth County School District library in Georgia. But the department official said they will be reviewing others.

The Office for Civil Rights enters into hundreds of resolution agreements a year with districts in cases involving racial harassment, disproportionate discipline, disability discrimination and gender discrimination. It can require corrective action ranging from resolving access issues for individual students with disabilities to sweeping audits of district-wide practices.