Busing and curriculum: Caselaw

Busing policies and the associated case law have shaped our understanding of the role race may play in assigning or admitting students to schools. The legal framework that emerged from busing litigation is particularly salient for curriculum studies as it relates to race-based admission protocols for schools with specialized academic emphasis. Where de jure segregation remains in a school system the courts have offered wide latitude for school boards to maintain forced busing programs, among other measures, to reverse the course of historical discrimination. However, absent de jure segregation, the courts have limited the schools' ability to establish admission and assignment policies based on race.

The first forced busing programs were designed to enforce desegregation policies in compliance with Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and ...