The US Education Department has removed rules allowing it to treat school policies with disproportionate racial or ethnic effects as discriminatory, unless intentional discrimination can be shown. The change weakens a longstanding civil-rights enforcement tool and could affect challenges to disciplinary and other school policies that produce unequal outcomes.

The rules concerned “disparate impact” under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race or national origin in federally funded programmes. The department said the standard had pressured schools into racial balancing, while civil-rights groups argued that discrimination is often not explicit and that the change removes an important safeguard; it took effect immediately without public consultation.