Resources

This policy brief documents a student assignment system designed to create racially diverse public schools while satisfying constitutional requirements recently articulated by the Supreme Court. Since Brown v. Board of Education was handed down by the Court in 1954, school integration has been at the forefront of our national consciousness as a constitutional imperative. Integration has been a difficult goal to achieve, but it has remained an ideal of many leaders and citizens of all races. It is a key element of the society we aspire to have.

This brief documents a real-world example of a student assignment plan created based on the guidelines in the PICS case. Although Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) was one of the districts whose prior student assignment plans were struck down in PICS, determined leaders in Jefferson County did not give up on the educational ideal of diversity. With support from a team of national and local legal and educational experts, JCPS devised a new student assignment plan that brings together students of different backgrounds within the newly articulated constitutional requirements.