Last month, the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced investigations into five medical schools for alleged racial discrimination in admissions. Admissions-focused investigations are nothing new for OCR. These five are different because of how they were opened: jointly, with two other federal agencies involved from the start.

OCR conducted this round with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division. Coordinated, multi-agency enforcement of Title VI has become the norm rather than the exception over the past year, and this announcement extends that pattern to graduate medical education.

These investigations did not come out of nowhere

Over the past year, OCR and DOJ have repeatedly turned their enforcement attention toward programs and practices that appear to use race in admissions, scholarships, pathway or pipeline programs, hiring initiatives, and other opportunities schools offer. OCR’s announcement also points to DOJ’s earlier investigations into 15 additional medical schools and to broader federal efforts to eliminate race-based preferences in higher education.

These actions point to a continuing enforcement focus on identifying both explicit and implicit race-conscious decision-making.

Where is the scrutiny likely headed next?

These investigations involve medical schools specifically, but the implications extend well beyond graduate medical education.

Professional schools and health science programs, including medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy, veterinary, physician assistant, and other graduate health professions programs, should expect continued scrutiny of admissions practices and related programming.

Institutions should consider reviewing not only formal admissions policies but also the broader ecosystem that supports admissions decisions, including:

• Published admissions criteria and selection factors;
• Program websites and recruitment materials;
• Scholarship eligibility requirements;
• Pipeline, pathway, and bridge programs;
• Internal admissions scoring systems and evaluation rubrics;
• Committee guidance and reviewer training materials; and
• Informal admissions practices that may not be reflected in written policy.

Federal investigators increasingly look beyond official policies to determine how admissions decisions are actually being made. That means documentation, internal guidance, and operational practices may receive the same scrutiny as publicly available materials.

Tuesday Takeaways

The real story here isn’t the number of new investigations OCR opened. It’s what those investigations confirm, two patterns we have tracked for the past year.

First, federal civil rights enforcement is becoming more coordinated across agencies. OCR, DOJ, and HHS moving together on these five investigations fits the broader pattern of interagency cooperation we have discussed recently.

Second, enforcement resources continue to concentrate on programs that may involve race-conscious decision-making. Institutions should not assume that compliance reviews will be limited to admissions policies alone. Investigators appear willing to examine the full range of institutional programs, communications, and practices that could influence admissions or educational opportunities.

For professional schools and health science programs, now is an appropriate time to conduct a proactive review of admissions-related materials, evaluation processes, scholarship criteria, and pathway programs to ensure that written policies and day-to-day practices are consistent with current legal requirements and institutional objectives.