<head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">&lt;head&gt; &lt;meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"&gt; &lt;title&gt;I-9help&lt;/title&gt; &lt;meta content="Civil Rights Training. Learn about grant related civil rights requirements under Title VI, Title IX, the limited English proficiency Executive Order (13166) and program specific civil rights statutes" name="description"&gt; <title>I-9 Help</title>
Civil Rights Help
 Lincoln Memorial

(Updated August 11, 2010)
This website is a perpetual work in progress to update you about civil rights requirements
 
Under Construction



Who I am

Useful links

The Attorney General prepares a report card for the President on Federal agency Title VI enforcement.  How to get a copy

Information on specific grant agencies
Title VI Legal Manual and legal issues

Investigative Procedures Manual

Coverage of Fire Departments

Is it time to form the Equal Services Opportunity Commission (ESOC)
Civil rights law is both simple and complex. 
Unfortunately making it hard is easy, the trick is to make it simple. 

I can do that for you.

Contact Andy Strojny at Andy.Strojny@yahoo.com
and learn how

NewHere is a partial overview of Title VI taken from the Department of Justice's Title VI Video
Note:  This is not the complete video, which is over twice as long as this segment.



But do you know the answers to these questions?

1.  Can a Federal grant recipient be sued by an individual who claims that there is an adverse impact in the delivery of grant services?

2.  Does the Attorney General prepare an annual report card on how well Federal agencies are doing in enforcing prohibitions against discrimination applicable to their grantees?

3.  Are contractors and subcontractors hired by recipients to carry out Federally assisted programs covered by prohibitions against discrimination applicable to recipients of Federal grants concerning discrimination in the provision of services?

If you are a Federal grant recipient, a state or local government, or an interested organization, you need to know the answers to these questions and more.  Click here for the answers. 

I can provide you with a one, two, or three day training course that sets out your rights and responsibilities under relevant civil rights statutes, regulations, and Executive Orders. 
  • These courses will provide you with information about Federal laws, regulations, guidelines, notices, and Executive Orders concerning discrimination in the provision of Federally assisted services.  Learn when guidelines are really treated like requirements.

  • They will provide with specific examples of the kinds of services discrimination that is covered.

  • They will provide information about what is supposed to happen when a complaint of services discrimination is filed and what often actually happens.

  • They will tell you how the Federal investigative process works, explaining the difference between a complaint investigation and a compliance review,  how the hearing procedure works, what voluntary compliance entails, and what the risks are to your federal funding.

  • You will learn what Federal agencies look for when they conduct services discrimination investigations and the differences between intentional discrimination and discrimination inferred from adverse impacts, including examples of adverse impacts relevant to your situation.

  • You will learn the defenses available when services discrimination is alleged.

  • You will learn what is at stake if you are found in noncompliance. 

  • You will learn about the Attorney General's annual report card to the President on how Federal agencies are enforcing grant related civil rights laws.
or

Updated The 10,000 Russians Conundrum

What would you do with the conundrum of the 10,000 Russians?

The Town of Tries to Do Right has a population of 100,000.  Ten thousand (10,000) of its population are of Russian national origin.  Of those 10,000, only 5,000 speak English well.  The remaining 5,000 are fluent only in Russian. 

During an investigation, it was discovered that Russian national origin individuals applied for food stamps at well under half the rate of other national origin groups.  Given further analysis, it was discoverd that the application rate for those of Russian national origin who spoke English was higher than for other national origin groups.  But, the application rate for those who only spoke Russian was only 10% of that of other national origin groups.

Is this national origin discrimination, language discrimination, or both and does it matter?

Are there other factors to consider?

Are other federal statutes, regulations, and executive orders involved?

What have the courts said?

What the training covers 

You will learn the basics of Title VI.  For example, what are cross-cutting civil rights statutes, what are program specific nondiscrimination statutes, why is there a sex gap in Title VI, what is a covered program or activity, does Title VI just apply to grants.   You will also learn about what kind of services need to be provided to those with limited English proficiency (LEP).

If you are a Federal agency, you will learn what the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, considers a model program to enforce laws against services discrimination. 

This training is based on the simple premise first put forth by President Kennedy almost a half century ago when he said:

Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers
of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute,
not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or
results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination.

 This same principle applies to gender as well.

To see an outline of what the training covers, click here.

I worked for the Coordination and Review Section and its predecessors in the Civil Rights Division for over 20 years and helped establish its civil rights training program for recipients of federal grants and for civil rights officers of other federal agencies that provide federal financial assistance.  To see the kind of training I helped develop and give, go to http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/cor/coord/train.php.  The training courses I helped give trained over 4000 people.  Over 98% of the students rated the courses OUTSTANDING or EXCELLENT.  The courses never received even one unsatisfactory rating.

This website will be updated often (so check back and see what is new) and provide useful information about
  • Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin by recipients of federal financial assistance,
  • Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally assisted education programs,
  • Executive Order 13166, which requires recipients of federal assistance as well as the Federal government to provide meaningful access to their federally assisted or federally conducted programs by individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) and
  • various program specific civil rights requirements.
This area of the law is at once simple and complex, as checking with http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/cor will show you.
I can help make it simple.

If you want to learn how, email
Andy.Strojny@yahoo.com

If you want to learn about how to comply with employer sanctions laws and form I-9 requirements without discriminating, go to http://www.i-9help.com