The District is fundamentally committed to equity, diversity and inclusion for the entire community that constitutes the District. The District’s commitment stretches all the way back to the late 1940s and early 1950s, when the District led the charge to change the statute that required all school districts in Arizona to segregate some students from others. Once that statute was changed, the District voluntarily integrated, closing its one primary school for African American students, and reassigning them to other schools without regard for race.
That commitment has continued, through state-mandated open enrollment and the rise of state-funded charter schools, through magnet programs to attract students across the District to create diversity within schools, supported by free transportation to magnet schools, and for those students who choose to attend a school where their presence improves the diversity of that school, to an integrated system of supports designed to identify students at risk and to provide interventions targeted and tailored to the individual students’ academic and cultural needs, to a comprehensive system of behavioral interventions supported by detailed reporting and comprehensive training and guidance for teachers and administrators, to enhance family and community engagement programs, tracked and monitored extracurricular activities, and careful and systematic attention to the distribution of funds for facilities and technology systems.
The District has recently emerged from a long period of federal court control and supervision over almost all aspects of its operation. While under court control, the District developed a series of plans for operation of various programs aimed at improving equity, diversity and inclusiveness for all members of its community. These pages are designed to inform the community about the current programs, and plans for their operation, and provide tools and information to the public to enable assessment of progress and public accountability for the District’s initiatives.
