True colors: Mom protests Unified enrollment form, claims bias against biracial kids
Ten-year-old Lenny Kaiser loves school, especially math and science. Both he and his mother Vanessa Lovelace, 28, had been looking forward to fall in a new city, a new school.
That is, until Lenny's race apparently became an issue when she tried to enroll her son at the Kenosha Unified School District's Educational Support Center nearly two weeks ago.
Lovelace said when she filled out enrollment papers, among the things asked was her child's race. The form includes boxes to check in five major races or ethnic groups.
Lenny, who is biracial - his mother is white and his father is black - didn't have a race that fit the form. So, Lovelace checked the boxes for both black and white.
"She (the secretary) handed the form back to me and said I had to pick one, otherwise, someone would pick his race for me," Lovelace said.
That's when Lovelace asked for her paperwork back. She said the person who had checked over her form crossed out her marks and circled "white" for her.
"At first I was shocked that they would say I couldn't check both boxes," she said. "She said the computer system, that was just updated, takes only one race. But so many kids that live here in Kenosha are not just white or not just black. I can't see how a state can only see one."
Before moving to Kenosha two months ago, Lovelace and her sons lived in Lindenhurst, Ill., where she said she was able to check on the school enrollment form that Lenny was "multiracial."
As of Friday, the cut-off day for registering her child at Unified's district's central office, Lovelace had not enrolled Lenny.
"I'm holding out. I want a better explanation than what they've given me," said Lovelace, an accountant who works in Illinois.
State, federal rules
According to Sonya Stephens, Unified's executive director of educational accountability, the district is following practices and guidelines set forth by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the federal government.
If the race of the child is not indicated, the guidelines allow for "observer identification" in order to make the determination of race.
According to Patrick Gasper, communications officer for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the federal government revised the rules in late 2007 to allow for a multiracial category. That change, however, is not scheduled to go into effect for all Wisconsin public school districts until the 2010-11 school year.
Gasper said the part of the form that asks about race should not stop parents from enrolling their children in school. Leaving it blank, he said, excludes the child from enrollment.
He said parents have left the section of the form blank, but someone, such as a principal, may determine the child's race, or another method of assigning race is used.
"The method is called bridging," Gasper said. "Say, for instance, if 100 parents decided to leave that part blank or the race couldn't be determined. Then based on those 100 (kids), the race would be allocated or distributed based on the racial breakdowns already present in a given district."
The racial demographic information is reported to the federal government for data collection, which can, in turn, indirectly affect funding for certain programs, according to Gasper.
Different in Illinois
However, Illinois has had a multiracial category for the last five years, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Matt Vanover, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education, said both the state and federal government recognized the growing number of students in Illinois with multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds and no one category could define them.
Stephens said Unified has also made the same argument to the state. Wisconsin and other states have recently been able to convince the federal government a change needs to be made.
That is, until Lenny's race apparently became an issue when she tried to enroll her son at the Kenosha Unified School District's Educational Support Center nearly two weeks ago.
Lovelace said when she filled out enrollment papers, among the things asked was her child's race. The form includes boxes to check in five major races or ethnic groups.
Lenny, who is biracial - his mother is white and his father is black - didn't have a race that fit the form. So, Lovelace checked the boxes for both black and white.
"She (the secretary) handed the form back to me and said I had to pick one, otherwise, someone would pick his race for me," Lovelace said.
That's when Lovelace asked for her paperwork back. She said the person who had checked over her form crossed out her marks and circled "white" for her.
"At first I was shocked that they would say I couldn't check both boxes," she said. "She said the computer system, that was just updated, takes only one race. But so many kids that live here in Kenosha are not just white or not just black. I can't see how a state can only see one."
Before moving to Kenosha two months ago, Lovelace and her sons lived in Lindenhurst, Ill., where she said she was able to check on the school enrollment form that Lenny was "multiracial."
As of Friday, the cut-off day for registering her child at Unified's district's central office, Lovelace had not enrolled Lenny.
"I'm holding out. I want a better explanation than what they've given me," said Lovelace, an accountant who works in Illinois.
State, federal rules
According to Sonya Stephens, Unified's executive director of educational accountability, the district is following practices and guidelines set forth by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the federal government.
If the race of the child is not indicated, the guidelines allow for "observer identification" in order to make the determination of race.
According to Patrick Gasper, communications officer for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the federal government revised the rules in late 2007 to allow for a multiracial category. That change, however, is not scheduled to go into effect for all Wisconsin public school districts until the 2010-11 school year.
Gasper said the part of the form that asks about race should not stop parents from enrolling their children in school. Leaving it blank, he said, excludes the child from enrollment.
He said parents have left the section of the form blank, but someone, such as a principal, may determine the child's race, or another method of assigning race is used.
"The method is called bridging," Gasper said. "Say, for instance, if 100 parents decided to leave that part blank or the race couldn't be determined. Then based on those 100 (kids), the race would be allocated or distributed based on the racial breakdowns already present in a given district."
The racial demographic information is reported to the federal government for data collection, which can, in turn, indirectly affect funding for certain programs, according to Gasper.
Different in Illinois
However, Illinois has had a multiracial category for the last five years, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Matt Vanover, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education, said both the state and federal government recognized the growing number of students in Illinois with multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds and no one category could define them.
Stephens said Unified has also made the same argument to the state. Wisconsin and other states have recently been able to convince the federal government a change needs to be made.
- added August 19, 2008
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"I think it's a good thing. Finally there is going to be a change, and this has been a long battle," she said.
She said that parents, however, should not let a form define who their children are.
Yet, Lovelace said Wisconsin's enrollment forms show a type of racism.
"It kind of shows just how the state of Wisconsin stands on biracial children when they make them choose who they are," she said.
She said she realizes she may be in the minority when it comes to standing up for her biracial child and hopes a change can come sooner than 2010. Lenny is supposed to go to Columbus Elementary School. If not, she is looking at either home-schooling Lenny or moving back to Lindenhurst altogether.
Lenny, who was with his mother when she tried to enroll him, said the whole situation just made him sad.
"It made me feel kind of weird," he said. "I'm sad because I'm not only one race. I'm black and I'm white."
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- goldenways
- 5 months ago
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Just pick one, wtf kind of command is that?
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