Ruling may ease Wake’s path to income-based school assignments
Federal officials have opened the door for Wake County to reintroduce students’ family income as a basis for school assignments.
U.S. Department of Agriculture attorneys say Wake can use data on students who receive subsidized lunches to balance schools by family income as long as the process doesn’t result in the identification of individual students.
A letter this past May from the federal education department’s Office for Civil Rights, obtained this week through an open-records request, lays out parameters for Wake’s use of the information, which the Agriculture Department had ruled off limits in 2011. Family income determines eligibility for subsidized lunches.
The news could re-ignite a fierce debate over busing students to achieve diversity goals, whic
