Appendix B to 34 CFR Part 104—Guidelines for Eliminating Discrimination and Denial of Services on the Basis of Race, Color, National Origin, Sex, and Handicap in Vocational Education Programs

IV. Access and Admission of Students to Vocational Education Programs

A. Recipient Responsibilities

Criteria controlling student eligibility for admission to vocational education schools, facilities and programs may not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap. A recipient may not develop, impose, maintain, approve, or implement such discriminatory admissions criteria.

B. Site Selection for Vocational Schools

State and local recipients may not select or approve a site for a vocational education facility for the purpose or with the effect of excluding, segregating, or otherwise discriminating against students on the basis of race, color, or national origin. Recipients must locate vocational education facilities at sites that are readily accessible to both nonminority and minority communities, and that do not tend to identify the facility or program as intended for nonminority or minority students.

C. Eligibility for Admission to Vocational Education Centers Based on Residence

Recipients may not establish, approve or maintain geographic boundaries for a vocational education center service area or attendance zone, (hereinafter “service area”), that unlawfully exclude students on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The Office for Civil Rights will presume, subject to rebuttal, that any one or combination of the following circumstances indicates that the boundaries of a given service area are unlawfully constituted:

1. A school system or service area contiguous to the given service area, contains minority or nonminority students in substantially greater proportion than the given service area;

2. A substantial number of minority students who reside outside the given vocational education center service area, and who are not eligible for the center reside, nonetheless, as close to the center as a substantial number of non-minority students who are eligible for the center;

3. The over-all vocational education program of the given service area in comparison to the over-all vocational education program of a contiguous school system or service area enrolling a substantially greater proportion of minority students:

(a) Provides its students with a broader range of curricular offerings, facilities and equipment; or (b) provides its graduates greater opportunity for employment in jobs:

(i) For which there is a demonstrated need in the community or region; (ii) that pay higher entry level salaries or wages; or (iii) that are generally acknowledged to offer greater prestige or status.

D. Additions and Renovations to Existing Vocational Education Facilities

A recipient may not add to, modify, or renovate the physical plant of a vocational education facility in a manner that creates, maintains, or increases student segregation on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap.

E. Remedies for Violations of Site Selection and Geographic Service Area Requirements

If the conditions specified in paragraphs IV, A, B, C, or D, immediately above, are found and not rebutted by proof of nondiscrimination, the Office for Civil Rights will require the recipient(s) to submit a plan to remedy the discrimination. The following are examples of steps that may be included in the plan, where necessary to overcome the discrimination:

(1) Redrawing of the boundaries of the vocational education center's service area to include areas unlawfully excluded and/or to exclude areas unlawfully included; (2) provision of transportation to students residing in areas unlawfully excluded; (3) provision of additional programs and services to students who would have been eligible for attendance at the vocational education center but for the discriminatory service area or site selection; (4) reassignment of students; and (5) construction of new facilities or expansion of existing facilities.

F. Eligibility for Admission to Secondary Vocational Education Centers Based on Numerical Limits Imposed on Sending Schools

A recipient may not adopt or maintain a system for admission to a secondary vocational education center or program that limits admission to a fixed number of students from each sending school included in the center's service area if such a system disproportionately excludes students from the center on the basis of race, sex, national origin or handicap. (Example: Assume 25 percent of a school district's high school students are black and that most of those black students are enrolled in one high school; the white students, 75 percent of the district's total enrollment, are generally enrolled in the five remaining high schools. This paragraph prohibits a system of admission to the secondary vocational education center that limits eligibility to a fixed and equal number of students from each of the district's six high schools.)

G. Remedies for Violation of Eligibility Based on Numerical Limits Requirements

If the Office for Civil Rights finds a violation of paragraph F, above, the recipient must implement an alternative system of admissions that does not disproportionately exclude students on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap.

H. Eligibility for Admission to Vocational Education Centers, Branches or Annexes Based Upon Student Option

A vocational education center, branch or annex, open to all students in a service area and predominantly enrolling minority students or students of one race, national origin or sex, will be presumed unlawfully segregated if:

(1) It was established by a recipient for members of one race, national origin or sex; or (2) it has since its construction been attended primarily by members of one race, national origin or sex; or (3) most of its program offerings have traditionally been selected predominantly by members of one race, national origin or sex.

I. Remedies for Facility Segregation Under Student Option Plans

If the conditions specified in paragraph IV-H are found and not rebutted by proof of nondiscrimination, the Office for Civil Rights will require the recipient(s) to submit a plan to remedy the segregation. The following are examples of steps that may be included in the plan, where necessary to overcome the discrimination:

(1) Elimination of program duplication in the segregated facility and other proximate vocational facilities; (2) relocation or “clustering” of programs or courses; (3) adding programs and courses that traditionally have been identified as intended for members of a particular race, national origin or sex to schools that have traditionally served members of the other sex or traditionally served persons of a different race or national origin; (4) merger of programs into one facility through school closings or new construction; (5) intensive outreach recruitment and counseling; (6) providing free transportation to students whose enrollment would promote desegregation.

J. [Reserved]

K. Eligibility Based on Evaluation of Each Applicant Under Admissions Criteria

Recipients may not judge candidates for admission to vocational education programs on the basis of criteria that have the effect of disproportionately excluding persons of a particular race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap. However, if a recipient can demonstrate that such criteria have been validated as essential to participation in a given program and that alternative equally valid criteria that do not have such a disproportionate adverse effect are unavailable, the criteria will be judged nondiscriminatory. Examples of admissions criteria that must meet this test are past academic performance, record of disciplinary infractions, counselors' approval, teachers' recommendations, interest inventories, high school diplomas and standardized tests, such as the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE).

An introductory, preliminary, or exploratory course may not be established as a prerequisite for admission to a program unless the course has been and is available without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, and handicap. However, a course that was formerly only available on a discriminatory basis may be made a prerequisite for admission to a program if the recipient can demonstrate that:

(a) The course is essential to participation in the program; and (b) the course is presently available to those seeking enrollment for the first time and to those formerly excluded.

L. Eligibility of National Origin Minority Persons With Limited English Language Skills

Recipients may not restrict an applicant's admission to vocational education programs because the applicant, as a member of a national origin minority with limited English language skills, cannot participate in and benefit from vocational instruction to the same extent as a student whose primary language is English. It is the responsibility of the recipient to identify such applicants and assess their ability to participate in vocational instruction.

Acceptable methods of identification include: (1) Identification by administrative staff, teachers, or parents of secondary level students; (2) identification by the student in postsecondary or adult programs; and (3) appropriate diagnostic procedures, if necessary.

Recipients must take steps to open all vocational programs to these national origin minority students. A recipient must demonstrate that a concentration of students with limited English language skills in one or a few programs is not the result of discriminatory limitations upon the opportunities available to such students.

M. Remedial Action in Behalf of Persons With Limited English Language Skills

If the Office for Civil Rights finds that a recipient has denied national origin minority persons admission to a vocational school or program because of their limited English language skills or has assigned students to vocational programs solely on the basis of their limited English language skills, the recipient will be required to submit a remedial plan that insures national origin minority students equal access to vocational education programs.

N. Equal Access for Handicapped Students

Recipients may not deny handicapped students access to vocational education programs or courses because of architectural or equipment barriers, or because of the need for related aids and services or auxiliary aids. If necessary, recipients must:

(1) Modify instructional equipment; (2) modify or adapt the manner in which the courses are offered; (3) house the program in facilities that are readily accessible to mobility impaired students or alter facilities to make them readily accessible to mobility impaired students; and (4) provide auxiliary aids that effectively make lectures and necessary materials available to postsecondary handicapped students; (5) provide related aids or services that assure secondary students an appropriate education.

Academic requirements that the recipient can demonstrate are essential to a program of instruction or to any directly related licensing requirement will not be regarded as discriminatory. However, where possible, a recipient must adjust those requirements to the needs of individual handicapped students.

Access to vocational programs or courses may not be denied handicapped students on the ground that employment opportunities in any occupation or profession may be more limited for handicapped persons than for non-handicapped persons.

O. Public Notification

Prior to the beginning of each school year, recipients must advise students, parents, employees and the general public that all vocational opportunities will be offered without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap. Announcement of this policy of non-discrimination may be made, for example, in local newspapers, recipient publications and/or other media that reach the general public, program beneficiaries, minorities (including national origin minorities with limited English language skills), women, and handicapped persons. A brief summary of program offerings and admission criteria should be included in the announcement; also the name, address and telephone number of the person designated to coordinate Title IX and Section 504 compliance activity.

If a recipient's service area contains a community of national origin minority persons with limited English language skills, public notification materials must be disseminated to that community in its language and must state that recipients will take steps to assure that the lack of English language skills will not be a barrier to admission and participation in vocational education programs.