Working Collaboratively to Achieve Our Goals
by Regina Sneed, US Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), of the U. S. Department of Education, is charged with enforcing the federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, and age in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. OCR's regional office in San Francisco and the California Association of Human Relation Organizations (CAHRO) have worked together since 1997 to tackle the issues of harassment and hate crime.

For the past two years OCR has worked in partnership with CAHRO on numerous projects and has provided training and technical assistance on federal civil rights requirements. OCR participated with other federal and state civil rights agencies in two CAHRO-sponsored community hate crimes forums in Stockton and Santa Cruz. These forums were part of CAHRO's efforts to organize a statewide hate crimes response network.

Last year OCR and CAHRO developed a workshop concerning school policing and racial harassment and hate crimes.  The workshop, co-hosted by CAHRO, the Police Officers Standards and Training organization (POST), and others, brought together police, school administrators, education organizations, OCR, and the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service to discuss hate crimes and racial harassment.  The participants identified the need for school administrators and police to understand each other's roles and limitations and to develop policies to address concerns raised by conflicting roles.  OCR is working with CAHRO and others to implement these recommendations.

Last January, OCR issued Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime: A Guide for Schools, developed jointly by OCR and the Bias Crimes Task Force Subcommittee of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG).  The Guide provides school administrators and others with practical guidance for developing a comprehensive approach to protecting students from harassment and hate crimes.  OCR and CAHRO are working together to learn how community organizations can use the guide to ensure students are safe and have an equal opportunity to learn. (The guide is available at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Harassment/)

OCR's partnerships with education and civil rights groups, community organizations, parents, and organizations such as CAHRO play an important role in fulfilling OCR's mission to ensure equal access to a high quality education for all students through the enforcement of civil rights laws.  CAHRO contributes information that is valuable to OCR in carrying out the agency's civil rights enforcement responsibilities, while OCR serves as a resource for CAHRO and its members who request OCR's assistance in addressing discrimination.  OCR looks forward to maintaining this productive partnership with CAHRO and serving as a resource for CAHRO and its members in the future.