School Health

The Hopkinton Public Schools seeks to fully comply with all laws and regulations that pertain to the civil rights of our students, parents, and employees including, but not limited to, the following federal laws and regulations. Mary D. Colombo, Ed.D., Assistant Superintendent, is the district coordinator for each of the statutes below.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
This title declares it to be the policy of the United States that discrimination on the ground of race, color, or national origin shall not occur in connection with programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance and authorizes and directs the appropriate Federal departments and agencies to take action to carry out this policy. This title is not intended to apply to foreign assistance programs.

Section 601 -- This section states the general principle that no person in the United States shall be excluded from participation in or otherwise discriminated against on the ground of race, color, or national origin under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

For further information see this federal web site.

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Prohibits discrimination, exclusion from participation, and denial of benefits on the basis of disability in public entities. Title II is codified at 42 U.S.C.
12131 et seq; regulations have been promulgated under it at 28 CFR Part 35 (available at http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/qa-disability.html).

The Equal Edcational Opportunities Act prohibits specific discriminatory conduct, including segregating students on the basis of race, color or national origin, and discrimination against faculty and staff. Furthermore, the EEOA requires school districts to take action to overcome students' language barriers that impede equal participation in educational programs. See the MA DOE Regulations for more information.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender by recipients of federal funds. Title IX has been applied to ensure adequate participation opportunities for female students in athletics and in cases of sexual harassment by school administrators, teachers and students. OCR has primary responsibility for enforcing Title IX's provisions with respect to recipients of federal education funds. See the following document for a history and more information "A Sea Change in Gender Equity in Education"

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act
This federal grant is to facilitate the enrollment, attendance, supplement enrichment activities, support professional development and support the well being of homeless children and youth in school. The priority is to identify and provide services such as: appropriate medical, dental, mental and other health services, transportation and parent education for homeless children, while other at-risk students may also be served. Grant money also provides tutoring, including shelter tutoring, supplemental educational services, summer programs, and pre-school programs. The Hopkins Public Schools complies with this law and the advisories of the MA Department of Education.