|MS Word (212 KB)| This report covers the activities of the U.S.
Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) from
October 1, 2002, to September 30, 2003. In addition to
describing OCR's civil rights compliance program, the report
demonstrates how OCR is able to make a real difference in the
lives of students. |"Any system and any person that gives up on
any child because of what he looks like or who his parents are
is no less discriminatory than a jeering mob blocking the
schoolhouse door. It is every inch the bigotry that once exiled
some people to the back of the bus." As we submit this report,
2004 marks a special year in America's longstanding efforts to
bring about equal educational opportunity for all people. It
commemorates the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board
of Education decision that declared separate but equal schools
to be unconstitutional. Brown stands as one of the greatest
decisions handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLB Act), the co