Non-Discrimination Notice
The Counseling department at Happy Valley Elementary School does not discriminate based on race, age, economic status, disability or ability, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, family type, religious or spiritual identity, size or appearance.
NONDISCRIMINATION IN COUNSELING UNDER TITLE VI
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects students from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs or activities receiving Federal financial assistance.
The ED regulation for Title VI contains a general prohibition against denying or restricting any service or providing any service in a different manner from that provided to others. It would be a violation for a counselor to direct or urge any student to enroll in a particular career or program, or measure or predict a student's prospects for success based on race, color, or national origin. School systems also must ensure that students with limited-English language skills receive effective counseling. Counseling materials and activities (including student program selection and career/employment selection) must be bias-free.
NONDISCRIMINATION IN COUNSELING UNDER TITLE IX
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects students from discrimination based on sex in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance.
The ED regulation for Title IX contains a specific prohibition against discrimination in counseling or guidance of students. The requirements of the regulation are summarized below.
Appraisal and Counseling Materials
A counselor may not use different materials in testing or guidance based on the student's sex unless this is essential in eliminating bias and then, provided the materials cover the same occupations and interest areas.
Testing Instruments
Where use of a particular test or other instrument results in disproportionate number of members of one sex in any course of study or classification, a school must make sure the instrument is not discriminatory or administered in a discriminatory manner.
Internal Control
Schools are required to develop and use internal procedures for ensuring that materials for appraising or counseling students are nondiscriminatory.
Disproportionate Classes
If a school finds that a particular class is disproportionately male or female, it must make sure this situation did not result because of sex-biased counseling or the use of discriminatory counseling or appraisal methods.
NONDISCRIMINATION IN COUNSELING UNDER SECTION 504
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects students from discrimination based on handicap in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance.
Under the Section 504 regulation:
COUNSELING SPECIAL POPULATION GROUPS
The civil rights statutory and regulatory requirements prohibit counselors, as agents of recipients of Federal financial assistance, from engaging in unlawful discriminatory practices. Some school systems have gone beyond the issue of preventing/remedying discrimination by initiating programs to meet the special guidance and counseling needs of minority, women, and handicapped students. The programs which have been instituted may be applicable to other school systems to support counselors in ensuring equal educational opportunity and improving counseling services for special target groups. This section summarizes several of these programs and activities.
Establishing Bias-Free Materials
Counselors can work with teachers to review career education and curricular materials to ensure they do not create or perpetuate stereotypes or limitations based on race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap. Some schools are using materials that portray males or females, minorities or handicapped persons in programs and occupations in which these groups traditionally have not been substantially represented. Others are encouraging teachers to include biographical readings about men and women, minorities, and handicapped persons in careers in which they are traditionally underrepresented. In some school systems, counselors are given training in identifying subtle and overt bias in career materials and in eliminating bias in these materials.
-U.S. Department of Education
Office for Civil Rights
Washington, D.C. 20202