Cherry Creek School District Faces Federal Race Discrimination Claim

Defending Education filed a federal civil rights complaint Monday against Cherry Creek School District. The group alleges the district discriminates on the basis of race in its employment practices. The complaint was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education.

Cherry Creek School District is the fourth-largest district in Colorado. It serves 52,000 students and more than 300,000 residents in the southeast Denver metropolitan area. The district signed a negotiated agreement with its teachers' union in June 2023.

That agreement includes a section called the Educators of Color Declaration. It commits both parties to recruiting, retaining, and advancing educators of color. A separate provision in the same document states that hiring and advancement must be based on qualifications without regard to race.

Sarah Parshall Perry, Vice President and Senior Legal Fellow at Defending Education, said the district wrote racial preferences directly into its teachers' contract. She stated that the declaration commits the district to recruiting and promoting teachers based on the color of their skin. Perry argued that equally qualified teachers are passed over for the same reason.

Perry told Fox News Digital that the policy is discrimination, not diversity. She said Title VI and the Fourteenth Amendment forbid such practices. She cited the Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions to argue that the law is colorblind. She noted that a school district cannot cure a race-based hiring policy with generic equal opportunity language.

Title VI prohibits race discrimination in federally funded programs. Title VII governs employment discrimination. The legality of Cherry Creek's commitments depends on how the policies are implemented in practice. The 2026-2027 Negotiated Agreement also requires all policies to reflect core values by grounding negotiations in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Perry said Cherry Creek is under no obligation to accept federal funding. Because it has accepted that funding, she argued it cannot run a racial balancing scheme for its workforce. She asked the Office for Civil Rights to open an investigation to end the practice.

This complaint follows a separate investigation announced by the Department of Education on June 8. That probe looks into allegations that the district sponsored racially discriminatory programs involving students, teachers, and parents. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said these allegations seem to permeate almost every aspect of the school community. She stated that race cannot be a factor in how the school educates students or trains teachers.

The Trump administration has moved to crack down on DEI efforts in education. In September, it proposed new regulations to revoke the tax-exempt status of private schools and colleges that consider race in admissions or scholarships. A Department of Education spokesperson said the Department does not confirm complaints. Cherry Creek School District did not immediately respond to requests for comment.