Philadelphia School District Integration Reports

The following information provides context to the proliferation of integration-related reporting and procedures in the School District of Philadelphia. On February 13th, 1976, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania issued an order requiring the Philadelphia School District to prepare and submit a desegregation plan to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission for approval. In response, the Board of Education created a "Task Force" of 26 parents and community members responsible for developing this plan. They met ten times and submitted a proposal (the Draft of the Desegregation Plan) to the commission. Before the 1976 order, the School District of Philadelphia compiled statistics regarding the racial makeup of the schools in compliance with local, state, and federal reporting requirements as established by various Civil Rights statutes. At a state level, in direct compliance with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Decision regarding school segregation, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission issued a reporting requirement of the racial composition of students and staff in Pennsylvania schools. Federally, the Federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare extended reporting procedures under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to all school systems in the United States in 1968.