K-12 Education Policy

FOIA records obtained by the group Defending Education show Oswego Community Unit School District 308 in Illinois is implementing an equity roadmap for 2025–26 that "aspires" to prioritize hiring and retaining staff with "diverse backgrounds," requires districtwide DEI trainings, and includes race‑based student sessions that parents were not told about. An internal equity report describes a middle‑school session during "Student Support Time" where students were divided by racial background, with one meeting focused on students of color and a planned follow‑up for "those who identify as White," a practice critics argue amounts to unlawful segregation. The documents also reference high‑school "content/equity" trainings and lunch‑and‑learn events on topics such as LGBTQ+ issues, microaggressions and Ramadan, plus plans to form a DEI Design Team and hold an "ASCEND" DEI conference with neighboring districts and Waubonsee Community College. The article further notes that the district’s K‑8 Superintendent of Equity and Engagement, Jadon A. Waller, remains employed after a 2025 Facebook post surfaced in which Waller called Charlie Kirk a "modern day Klans man" following his assassination, fueling controversy over the district’s political climate. The disclosures feed into a broader national fight over whether K‑12 DEI initiatives are crossing legal lines by separating students by race and embedding ideological content into mandatory programming without clear parental notice.