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Office for Civil Rights
Annual Report to Congress FY 2004

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Compliance Reviews and Other Proactive Initiatives

In addition to resolving complaints, OCR initiates compliance reviews and takes other proactive steps to focus on specific compliance problems that are particularly acute or national in scope. In general, targeted compliance reviews and proactive initiatives maximize the impact of OCR's resources and complement the complaint resolution process. These strategic activities benefit large numbers of students through policy or program changes by recipients designed to ensure compliance with the civil rights laws.

OCR initiated 53 compliance reviews in FY 2004 and brought 29 reviews to successful resolution, some of which had been started in previous years. Compliance review sites are selected based on various sources of information, including information provided by parents, education groups, media, community organizations, the public and, in certain circumstances, survey data to the extent it is supported by other sources of information.

More than half of the compliance reviews initiated in FY 2004 (28) involved a nationwide enforcement initiative to eliminate barriers to access for postsecondary students with disabilities. Areas of focus for these compliance reviews at both public and private postsecondary institutions included (but were not limited to) accessibility to residence halls, classrooms and academic buildings, and parking facilities. OCR also continued its efforts to review school districts' misidentification of minority and English language learner students in special education.

Of the 29 compliance reviews closed in FY 2004, 15 involved reviews of state departments of education to ensure that Title IX coordinators were designated and trained and that Title IX nondiscrimination policies and other information were published in accordance with regulations.

Figure 3 shows the number of reviews initiated and resolved by compliance issue.

OCR Compliance Reviews by Issue
FY2004
Compliance Issue
Initiated
Resolved*
Ability Grouping
0
1
Accessibility
28
0
Admission to Vocational Education Programs (Title IX)
0
2
High Stakes Testing (Section 504)
1
0
Limited English Proficient Students and Special Education/Services for Students with Limited English Proficiency
8
3
Minorities and Special Education
15
9
Procedural Requirements (Title IX)
0
15
Racial Harassment/Sexual Harassment
1
2
* Includes compliance reviews carried over from previous years. Also, several reviews contain more than one compliance issue.
Figure 3

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Last Modified: 11/01/2007