In a newly released report, the California Department of Education determined Oakland Unified School District discriminated against Jewish students, as the state attempts to crackdown on antisemitism in California schools.
The report released this week surrounds a state antisemitism complaint filed by Oakland’s Law Office of Marleen Sacks. Filed in May of last year, it alleged the district discriminated against Jewish students when it sent out materials in celebration of Arab American Heritage Month that did not include Israel on a map of the current Middle East, instead labeling the entire territory as Palestine. The complaint also accused Oakland Unified of discriminating against students by publicizing Arab American Heritage Month more favorably than Jewish Heritage Month and linking to the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, which the law firm alleges is anti-Israel.
According to the newly released state report, Oakland Unified’s investigation of the complaint — concluded in Aug. 2025 — found that while the district did not unfairly publicize Arab American Heritage month over Jewish Heritage Month, the district violated board policies by excluding Israel and using content from the Arab Resource and Organizing Center — an organization the district was aware could be considered antisemitic. But the district’s investigation did not address the allegation of antisemitism, implying there was no discrimination, the California Department of Education report said.
In its report, the Department of Education concluded that Oakland Unified discriminated against Jewish students when Israel was excluded from the map and failed to comply with complaint procedures — taking over a year to issue its investigative report when state law requires a maximum of 60 days. The department also said Oakland Unified refused to hand over its investigative report, citing attorney-client privilege, which the department said was an insufficient basis for refusal.
Oakland Unified did not respond to a request for comment by this news organization.
The findings come as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 715 earlier this month — controversial legislation that establishes a new Office of Civil Rights and a statewide Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator in an effort to rein in antisemitism in schools. Educator groups across the state opposed the bill, expressing concerns it would chill free speech and stifle academic freedom.
Oakland Unified has faced numerous complaints of antisemitism in the last year over teaching materials related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, prompting Jewish families to pull their children from the district. A December 2023 teach-in on Palestine held by the district’s teachers prompted a federal civil rights investigation and a separate Oakland Unified investigation found a teacher “created a hostile environment” for Jewish students by hanging anti-Semitic posters inside their classroom.
Sacks also filed a lawsuit against the district on behalf of the Oakland Jewish Alliance in April, alleging the district has repeatedly failed to properly investigate allegations of antisemitism and has created a “hostile environment” for Jewish families and staff.
The California Department of Education directed Oakland Unified to train its staff on the state complaint procedures and anti-discrimination and bias and provide a copy of the training materials and a list of staff in attendance.
But attorney Sacks said the department’s directed trainings as a corrective measure for Oakland Unified were “wholly inadequate” to address the problems in the district.
“The district is permeated with systemic antisemitism, anti-Israel bias and indoctrination,” Sacks said in a statement. “This issue with the maps is just one of dozens of issues that we have brought to the district’s — as well as CDE’s — attention and neither of these agencies are doing anything substantive to correct the problems.”