{"id":81408,"date":"2025-08-15T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casel.org\/?p=81408"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:36:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:36:39","slug":"casel-statement-on-court-ruling-on-u-s-ed-interpretation-of-dei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casel.org\/casel-statement-on-court-ruling-on-u-s-ed-interpretation-of-dei\/","title":{"rendered":"CASEL Statement on Court Ruling on U.S. ED Interpretation of DEI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>CASEL applauds the recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/08\/15\/nx-s1-5503319\/judge-strump-dei-programs-schools\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">final ruling<\/a> from the <a href=\"https:\/\/democracyforward.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/DCL-MSJ-opinipn.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S. District Court<\/a> for the District of Maryland, holding the Administration\u2019s actions as unlawful and unconstitutional. The ruling strikes down the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s February 14 \u201cDear Colleague Letter\u201d and accompanying Certification Requirement to states and districts. The court found that the Administration\u2019s actions violated federal law, were unconstitutionally vague, and risked infringing on educators\u2019 First Amendment rights. As the ruling states, the government caused \u201cmillions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech might cause them or their schools to be punished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This ruling validates concerns CASEL <a href=\"https:\/\/casel.org\/casel-statement-on-federal-overreach-and-misrepresentation-of-social-and-emotional-learning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">voiced<\/a> in March, echoed by <a href=\"https:\/\/bonamici.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/booker-blumenthal-bonamici-lee-urge-doe-ocr-rescind-guidance-inclusive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">members of Congress<\/a> and the Leading with SEL Coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"this-decision-makes-clear-what-we-have-long-known-to-be-true-sel-is-not-discriminatory-or-unlawful-under-federal-law\"><strong>This decision makes clear what we have long known to be true: SEL is not discriminatory or unlawful under federal law.<\/strong><\/h2><a class=top href=\"#top\">Back to top<\/a>\n\n\n\n<p>With this final ruling, the court recognizes that the Department\u2019s actions created confusion and a chilling effect on lawful, evidence-based practices such as social and emotional learning that support student success and foster safe, inclusive schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As always, CASEL will continue our work to stand in partnership and support of educators, education leaders, students, and families across the country who are working every day to ensure students have the essential social and emotional skills they need to succeed in school and life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find more information about social and emotional learning on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/casel.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">casel.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CASEL applauds the recent final ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, holding the Administration\u2019s actions as unlawful and unconstitutional. The ruling strikes down the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s February 14 \u201cDear Colleague Letter\u201d and accompanying Certification Requirement to states and districts. The court found that the Administration\u2019s actions violated federal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47740,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[218,219,217,216,222],"class_list":["post-81408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47740"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81408"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81478,"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81408\/revisions\/81478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casel.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}