Milwaukee Public Schools is trying to walk two directions at once. District leaders have spent years working to reduce suspensions and expulsions by catching discipline problems before they escalate, but the Trump administration is now investigating whether that very effort has gone too far, alleging the district may have improperly factored race into how it disciplines students.
The Milwaukee Board of School Directors recently accepted a school climate and culture report describing efforts to improve student behavior through stronger relationships, early intervention, and alternatives to suspension, according to Urban Milwaukee. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Education is scrutinizing whether MPS improperly considered race when administering discipline, and the department announced its investigation into possible Title VI violations on August 18. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects civil rights in federally funded programs, and federal officials allege MPS may have used race in its discipline practices. The district has said it is unaware of any complaint that prompted the investigation, per Urban Milwaukee's reporting.
A 20-Page Letter Reverses Federal Guidance
The investigation traces back to a 20-page Dear Colleague Letter signed by Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey, which prohibited schools from considering race when making discipline decisions, according to The Daily Signal. That guidance argued federal civil rights law had been misinterpreted during the Obama and Biden administrations, which had previously encouraged schools to review racial disparities in suspensions and expulsions. Reviewing disparities is distinct from using race to decide an individual student's punishment. The Daily Signal reports the enforcement push was explicitly grounded in President Trump's April 2025 executive order titled Reinstating Commonsense School Discipline Policies.
MPS is not alone. The Department of Education opened its Title VI probe into Milwaukee alongside a parallel investigation into Fayetteville Public Schools in Arkansas over similar restorative justice discipline practices, according to The Educator's Room. The outlet frames the dual probes as part of a broader national initiative targeting districts with race-conscious discipline models.
A Long History of Federal Pressure Over Discipline
This is not the first time Washington has scrutinized how Milwaukee disciplines its students, though the direction of pressure has reversed. MPS was under pressure to reduce disproportionately high suspension and expulsion rates among Black students as far back as 2016, and in 2018 the district entered a formal compliance agreement with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights after a federal investigation found that in 2011-2012, Black students made up 56% of enrollment but 84.7% of expulsions, including more than 100 instances where Black students were expelled for offenses that led only to suspensions for white students, according to Wisconsin Watch.
Recent data show those disparities have not disappeared. During the 2025-2026 school year, MPS recorded 38 total student expulsions, 30 of which involved Black students — 79% of all expulsions despite Black students making up 48% of total district enrollment, the outlet reports. The prior year told a similar story: Black students were involved in 54% of incidents requiring disciplinary action, yet accounted for 78% of suspensions and 86% of expulsions, per the same Wisconsin Watch analysis. Suspension and expulsion rates remain disproportionately high, especially for Black males, according to Urban Milwaukee.
Local Reaction Splits Along Familiar Lines
The conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty publicly applauded the probe and has opposed race-based discipline approaches, according to WisPolitics.
Angela Harris, chair of the Black Educators Caucus MKE, offered a more measured response, telling Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that while race should not dictate consequences, federal officials cannot simply dismiss the disparities that still show up in how discipline is administered.
District Leaders Focus on Prevention, Not the Investigation
Inside MPS, the response to the federal scrutiny has mostly played out through policy, not public statements about the probe itself. The district recognized as far back as 2015 that suspensions had become a form of punishment rather than a corrective tool, and it now uses prevention as a first step toward lowering suspension and expulsion rates, per Urban Milwaukee. Students who are ultimately expelled are placed into an alternative program rather than simply removed from schooling altogether.
Board members Kate Vannoy and Erika Siemsen sponsored the resolution that created the district's Department of Equity, Belonging, and Community, bringing it to the board in May. Siemsen told the board on September 8 that important information should not fall through the cracks, and said the effort sought to bring separate strands of work together comprehensively, according to Urban Milwaukee's reporting.
Jon Jagemann, director of that department, presented a report on climate and culture that same day outlining ways to improve student behavior and academic achievement. He recommended preventive systems, clear expectations, stronger relationships, detention, counseling, interventions, restorative circles, and peer mediation as alternatives to some suspensions — but notably did not refer to the ongoing federal investigation during his committee presentation, per Urban Milwaukee.
Cassellius Points to Teachers and Paraprofessionals
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, who was appointed to lead MPS in March 2025 after previously serving as superintendent of Boston Public Schools according to Marquette University Law School, has identified a licensed teacher in every classroom as the district's top prevention measure. She also pointed to improved instruction and reading ability as key to keeping students engaged, per Urban Milwaukee's coverage.
Cassellius said MPS uses more paraprofessionals than she has seen in other districts, noting that these staff members can take students for walks and redirect them in classrooms before behavior escalates into something that requires formal discipline. Board member James Ferguson said he is especially interested in how the district supports Black and brown male students, noting that most MPS students come from poor families and that student self-esteem is probably the number one indicator of how a student will act. Ferguson also sponsored a resolution allowing students to participate in school activities regardless of their ability to pay school fees, according to Urban Milwaukee.
Discipline Pressures Don't Stop at the Classroom Door
The federal probe adds to a set of overlapping pressures MPS has faced over school safety and discipline in recent years. In February 2025, a Milwaukee County judge ordered MPS and the city to deploy 25 school resource officers to high schools after parents took legal action over the district's noncompliance with Wisconsin Act 12, according to the Badger Institute. That ruling pushed traditional policing back into schools even as the district pursued restorative alternatives to suspension.
Public scrutiny of MPS staff conduct has intensified in recent days as well. Hoodline reported a paraprofessional was charged after allegedly scratching a student's neck, and later covered a grandmother's account that an MPS staffer accused of spanking a 3-year-old had been seen back at school. Those cases sit alongside the district's Department of Equity, Belonging, and Community, which serves students with disabilities and LGBT+ students as well as Black and brown students, and which the district describes as committed to creating a sense of community and belonging, per Urban Milwaukee.
