How to Address Antisemitism in K-12 Schools: 6 Key Steps

In recent years, antisemitism has grown increasingly widespread and severe across the United States, permeating everyday life - from streets and workplaces to politics, media, educational institutions, and digital spaces. According to ADL’s Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, in 2024 there were 860 antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools and in 2025 there were 825. Many Jewish and non-Jewish students, educators, and families are still exposed in K-12 spaces to troubling levels of hate and harassment; notably, this was one of the only sectors that did not see a meaningful decline in incident rates between 2024 and 2025.

We all have a role to play in confronting and countering antisemitism early and aggressively, whenever and wherever it emerges.

As a leading provider of antisemitism training for students and educators in K-12 schools, ADL is ready to support school districts and education professionals across the country in this critical work.

Outlined below are ADL’s six asks to guide state education departments, superintendents, education professionals, and school administrators in their work to counter antisemitism and strengthen Jewish life in their K-12 schools and school districts.

1. Clearly define antisemitism and ensure consistent application when responding to reports of antisemitic harassment or discrimination.

Antisemitism is a complex and nuanced form of discrimination that is often not well understood. This is in large part because antisemitism is more than just a form of religious hatred. It can take the form of:

• Racialized bigotry, such as swastikas, Nazi salutes, or Holocaust jokes based on white supremacist or extremist ideology.
• Bigotry grounded in conspiracy theories, such as conspiracies featuring myths about Jewish power, money, and control.
• Anti-Zionist[1] harassment or discrimination, such as excluding Jewish students from school activities based on their actual or perceived historic, cultural, religious, and/or ethnic identification with Israel.

Schools should therefore adopt a definition of antisemitism, whether by using an established definition such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition, considering comprehensive alternative frameworks, or developing their own in-house definition in consultation with experts on antisemitism. In doing so, schools should select an approach that best reflects their educational context while ensuring clarity in identifying and addressing antisemitic behavior.

Regardless of the definition adopted, it should function as a clear benchmark for action - guiding schools in unequivocally condemning antisemitism and in identifying, assessing, and investigating incidents when they occur. The definition should support consistent, transparent responses and reinforce a strong institutional commitment to safeguarding all members of the school community from discrimination and harassment.

We therefore urge districts to adopt a clear definition of antisemitism that provides clarity in identifying, investigating and addressing antisemitic behavior when it occurs within the school district.

Best Practices

• In January 2026, as part of a legal settlement, the Cherry Hill Public Schools district in New Jersey was required to issue on its website a detailed statement that contained a definition of antisemitism, including examples of antisemitism related to Israel.
• In January 2024, the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania adopted the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and made it available for all members of the district community on the Making Practices Public page of their website.
• Barton School District in Arkansas has a dedicated webpage defining antisemitism, utilizing the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, and noting that “antisemitism is strictly prohibited in all educational programs, services, activities, and operations of the Barton School District.”

More examples of districts that have defined antisemitism via their Title VI webpages can be found in section 3 of this webpage.

2. Educate students, teachers and community members about Jewish identity, antisemitism (including modern iterations), and ensure robust Holocaust education in school.

Many school districts either do not include content in their curriculum that is focused on Jewish history, identity, and culture, or have proposed or considered adopting content that veers into antisemitism and/or extreme anti-Israel bias.This is particularly concerning at a time of rising antisemitic incidents across the country. School districts must ensure that topics like Jewish identity, Jewish history and manifestations of antisemitism are properly incorporated in K-12 curricula and training efforts.

Schools should take similar steps to ensure that Holocaust education is covered in the classroom. Holocaust education is an effective, proven lever to combat antisemitism in society; and yet, unfortunately, the Holocaust is still not universally addressed in K-12 curricula. It is therefore not surprising that surveys have found an alarming lack of knowledge about the Holocaust among younger generations. This is deeply concerning, as the latest research from ADL’s Center for Antisemitism Research (CAR) suggests a direct relationship between deficiencies in Holocaust education and an increase in prejudicial, antisemitic beliefs.

Fortunately, there is broad public support for expanding education on both the Holocaust and antisemitism: A 2024 ADL survey revealed that 89% of Americans support Holocaust education being offered at the K-12 level and 84% support education on antisemitism. Among parents, 86% support antisemitism education, and 88% endorse Holocaust education; notably, 52% of parents believe Holocaust education should be mandatory.

Despite this broad public backing, there is a significant gap in educational offerings. The 2024 research showed that only 21% of parents surveyed reported that their child’s school provides antisemitism education, and 30% have access to Holocaust education, with a mere 15% receiving both.

We therefore urge school districts to:

• Offer trainings to raise awareness of the manifestations, and impacts of antisemitism, as well as education on reporting pathways.
• Incorporate content into the curriculum focused on Jewish history, culture, and identity.
• Incorporate Holocaust studies into the curriculum.
• Provide mandatory antisemitism awareness and Holocaust education professional development trainings for all educators.

Best Practices

• In April 2026, the Los Angeles Unified School District in California passed a resolution recognizing May as Jewish American Heritage Month and embracing a new educational curriculum on Judaism and Israel. 
• In June 2025, the Maryland State Department of Education Social Studies Standards and Frameworks Validation Committee approved a new framework for instruction that includes a reworked focus on antisemitism and Holocaust education.
• In January 2024, New York City Public Schools released a comprehensive plan in response to incidents of antisemitism, which included new resources and educational programming coming to the district’s schools the following school year. New programming included:
  • A Holocaust Teaching Guide that curated high-quality Holocaust teaching resources for educators. 
  • A Hidden Voices, Jewish Americans series to uplift the stories of Jewish Americans who have impacted the country and the world.
• In 2024, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland revised the elementary and middle school social studies curricula to expose students to the Jewish experience, the Holocaust, and antisemitism earlier in their academic careers. As part of their efforts, the district worked with Jewish community partners to train around 1,500 county educators on Jewish identity, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and recognizing and correctly responding to implicit and explicit bias against Jews.

3. Clearly communicate and enforce the law and all District policies and protocols, including student and employee codes of conduct and anti-bullying, anti-harassment, and anti-discrimination policies, and establish a Title VI office or coordinator role, ensuring robust reporting mechanisms and procedures for the investigation of complaints are in place.

It is critical that all school districts have clear and transparent non-discrimination, anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies (including policies pertaining to cyberbullying); clear and transparent mechanisms for students, parents, teachers and staff to report hate incidents (whether antisemitism, or any other form of hate) to school administrators; procedures for responding to reports of bias/hate incidents, including investigation of incidents, communication to the broader parent community about such incidents, and education to address the broader impact these incidents have on school communities.

School districts should also establish Title VI offices or appoint Title VI coordinators responsible for overseeing compliance with federal civil rights obligations. These offices or coordinators should offer support to students, educators, and staff who report harassment or bias based on race, color, or national origin, as defined by federal law; ensure that all members of the school community understand how to report discrimination; ensure complaints are taken seriously and investigated promptly, fairly, and consistently, with complainants informed of progress and outcomes in a timely manner; lead training and education efforts to prevent discrimination; maintain accurate records of complaints and track trends; review complaints collectively to assess whether they indicate a broader hostile environment; and, to the maximum extent permitted by law, share data about discrimination complaints publicly.

Schools must also be mindful of cases where speech creates or contributes to a hostile environment for Jewish students or causes a material and substantial disruption in school. In such cases, in order to protect the rights of all students, schools may need to take corrective action.

We urge school districts to create and consistently enforce robust and comprehensive policies and procedures to effectively respond to identity-based discrimination, harassment and bullying in K-12 schools in a timely manner, and to take steps to ensure transparency regarding the enforcement of these policies to the extent allowable under law.

Best Practices:

• The Green Forest School District in Arkansas has a dedicated webpage defining antisemitism and stating “Discrimination and harassment based on antisemitism is expressly prohibited in the Green Forest School District. The District strongly prohibits this behavior in both educational programs and activities. Students, parents, or employees of the district who are experiencing these actions may report them directly to the Title VI coordinator. Contact information and the complaint process may be found below.” 
• Rogers Public Schools in Arkansas has a dedicated webpage defining antisemitism and stating “Discrimination and harassment based on antisemitism is expressly prohibited. Complaints of discrimination or harassment based on antisemitism may be filed with the Title VI Coordinator.”
• New York City Public Schools has a comprehensive webpage outlining the non-discrimination policy for its school districts and directing anyone with questions about compliance with Title VI to the Title VI coordinator.

4. Encourage schools to take proper steps to ensure former curricula and teaching resources do not amplify antisemitism or delegitimize/demonize the State of Israel or its existence.

Schools should ensure that lesson plans are free from antisemitic bias and that they do not unintentionally amplify or perpetuate antisemitic beliefs or attitudes in a school community that could create or contribute to a hostile environment for Jewish students. It is critical that lessons on Middle East history, Israel, Palestine, Judaism and the Holocaust are taught in a fact-based and pedagogically sound way. ADL has a number of resources that can be used to support schools, including a guide on recognizing and combating problematic messages.

Antisemitic or biased language should be addressed immediately to prevent adoption or escalation. No lesson or classroom conversation on Middle East history or a related topic should contain any of the following:

• Content suggesting that any population of residents in the region should be eliminated or displaced from where they live.
• Use of nationalities or other group identifiers (such as Zionists, Israelis, Palestinians, etc.) as slurs or pejoratives.
• Use of dehumanizing names or comparisons (like “vermin,” “savages”).
• Generalizations about all people in an identity group.

We urge school districts to ensure that all lessons on Israel, Judaism, Jewish people and the Holocaust do not contain negative bias that amplifies antisemitism or delegitimizes or demonizes the State of Israel.

Best Practices:

• In August 2025, San Francisco Unified School District officials in California reminded teachers that political opinions do not belong in classroom instruction, including through speech, attire, or classroom displays.
• In February 2025, the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) in California agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by ADL, Brandeis Center, and AJC. As part of the agreement, SAUSD committed to:
  • Cease instruction of Ethnic Studies World Geography, Ethnic Studies World Histories, and Ethnic Studies: Perspectives, Identities, and Social Justice until the courses are re-designed with the opportunity for public input in accordance with California’s open meeting laws. The courses contained false and damaging narratives about Israel and the Jewish people. Antisemitic content will also be removed from Ethnic Studies World Histories so that the course can continue being taught for the remainder of this school year only.
  • Recognize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a controversial issue and to strictly adhere to the two policies – Board Policy 6144 Controversial Issues and Administrative Regulation 6144 Controversial Issues – that apply when teaching such issues. Under these policies, teaching must be based on fact and allow for alternative views; teachers must ensure all sides of a controversial issue are impartially presented; students must be taught to separate opinion from fact; and no teacher or speaker may use the classroom or materials to advocate their own religious, political, economic or social views.
• In August 2024, the Miami-Dade County School Board in Florida approved an initiative to review whether district-approved curriculum contains examples of antisemitism. The proposal also called for the creation of an interfaith task group and staff training on how to discuss related issues in the classroom.
• In October 2021, the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) board of education passed a resolution underscoring that “the Board of Education supports balanced and open classroom discussion, including the use of unbiased and politically neutral materials on issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as laid out in BP 6144 Controversial Issues, while condemning content that delegitimizes the right of any people, including Jews and Palestinians, to self-determination.”
• In July 2021, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school board in California passed a resolution calling for:
  • “Updated bulletins, curricular and instructional resources, and training for teachers, staff, administrators, students, and parents to address and prevent anti-Semitism and respond when anti-Semitic vandalism, bullying, harassment, or violence occurs either on campus or in the community, including specific reference to anti-Semitism in the mandated bulletins training at the start of each school year;” and
  • The district to “have their curriculum updated “in the areas of Jewish history and culture and the Holocaust.””

5. Speak out and take other corrective actions when antisemitism creates a hostile environment for Jewish members of the school community.

Schools must issue clear statements condemning antisemitism when antisemitic incidents occur and treat antisemitism with the same seriousness as other forms of hate and discrimination. When a school district experiences an antisemitic incident, one of the most important steps that district and school leadership can take is to call it out publicly in a swift, clear and direct manner. And when Jewish students, educators or staff are subjected to discrimination, exclusion, or harassment that creates a hostile environment, school district leadership should be prepared to make clear that such actions will be investigated and appropriately addressed. Antisemitic behavior regardless of the source causes real harm – not simply hurt feelings – to both the targeted student(s) and the community as a whole, which must be addressed.

It is important to remember that even when an antisemitic incident involves protected speech, schools still need to take corrective action to remedy a hostile environment that is created by the speech. In addition to condemning antisemitism, remedial steps could include:

• Providing counseling and support to the students who were harassed.
• Offering counseling to the offending students regarding the harmful effects of their conduct.
• Hosting a school assembly to discuss antisemitism and its harmful impact.
• Reiterating the school’s or district’s values and culture of being welcoming, inclusive and respectful of students of all races, colors, and national origins.

In addition, school districts can:

• Train teachers and administrators, including the district’s leadership team, on how to recognize, report and address antisemitic incidents.
• Create an age-appropriate program to educate students about the history and dangers of antisemitism.
• Conduct outreach to parents and community groups (like ADL) to learn ways to prevent future antisemitic harassment.
• Depending on the underlying facts, the District may be legally required to take other action reasonably calculated to redress the hostile environment.

We urge school and district leadership to speak out strongly and unequivocally in the wake of antisemitic incidents, and to take appropriate remedial actions in response.

Best Practices:

• In April 2026, the Portland Public Schools (Oregon) Superintendent condemned antisemitic and sexually explicit content that was posted during a virtual Board of Education engagement session, calling the incident a violation of the district's core values.
• In April 2026, the Scarsdale Public School District Superintendent released a statement announcing that the district was disciplining the perpetrators of an antisemitic incident following a prompt investigation.
• In October 2025, the Freehold Regional High School District (New Jersey) Superintendent published a statement following an antisemitic incident in one of its schools, stating that “Freehold Regional High School District and all its high schools unequivocally and in the strongest possible sense condemn antisemitism and all forms of hate. We are aware of antisemitic posts that were made outside of school by some of our students in our school district. We are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness and taking immediate, comprehensive, and decisive action.  This incident is being investigated thoroughly and is being addressed through our district code of conduct and policies, New Jersey's Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act and HIB requirements, and formal coordination with law enforcement as per our Memorandum of Agreement.”
• In May 2024, the Monticello Central School District (New York) Superintendent published a statement following an antisemitic incident in one of its schools, outlining updates regarding the actions the district was taking in response and stating that “I am troubled that today’s incident comes on the heels of a similar incident at the high school on May 2. In my statement to the community last week, I reiterated the district’s condemnation of antisemitism; discussed the strategies currently in place to combat hate and intolerance; and promised to build upon those strategies.”
• In December 2022, the Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland) Superintendent published a statement denouncing an antisemitic graffiti incident in one of the district’s schools.

6. Ensure a welcoming and inclusive environment for Jewish students and employees.

In order to create welcoming and inclusive learning environments, school districts should take reasonable steps to accommodate students’ and employees’ religious observances, background, and beliefs. This includes:

• Regularly conducting school climate surveys to assess the experiences of students, families and employees regarding discrimination, harassment, and inclusion, including experiences related to antisemitism. Surveys should evaluate awareness of and confidence in reporting processes, perceptions of the school’s response to complaints, and opportunities for improving school policies, procedures, and responses related to discrimination and harassment, including antisemitism.
• Accommodating students who may miss school for a religious observance by providing students with an excused absence and a reasonable amount of time to make up any missed work.
• Accommodating educators and staff who may miss work for a religious observance by providing an excused absence and a reasonable opportunity to make up missed responsibilities or adjust their duties accordingly.
• Encouraging teachers, athletic directors, and other programmatic heads to avoid scheduling major events (tests, tryouts, etc.) on religious holidays like the Jewish Sabbath and the Jewish High Holidays (including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur).
• Ensuring that student and employee dress code policies provide appropriate accommodations for religious garb.
• Providing reasonable accommodations to support students and employees with dietary needs due to religious beliefs or observances.

We urge state education departments and school districts to review and/or update their religious accommodation policies or guidelines and take other steps to help foster equitable and inclusive learning environments for all members of school communities.

Best Practices:

• Boston Public Schools in Massachusetts has a thorough FAQ guide for employees about the district’s religious holiday accommodations, with the guide explicitly naming a number of Jewish religious holidays.
• New Trier Township High School District 203 in Illinois has a webpage on Religious and Cultural Holiday Information, which provides guidance for teachers on religious accommodations, noting that “Teachers must work with students to determine an appropriate time to make up assessments and any major assignments that are required and were missed due to their observances.” The webpage also provides educational descriptions for major religious holidays, including Jewish ones.

Additional Helpful Information

Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction published a guide entitled “Preventing and Responding to Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Discriminatory Harassment in Schools.” It includes reminders of school districts’ obligations for preventing and responding to hate, bias and discriminatory harassment, and resources specific to antisemitism and Islamophobia.

We encourage school administrators and educators to review this letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on schools’ obligations under Title VI to address discrimination against Jewish students. OCR has additional Fact Sheets on Protecting Students from Discrimination Based on Shared Ancestry or Ethnic Characteristics and Combating Discrimination Against Jewish Students which provide specific examples of school action or inaction that could potentially violate Title VI, and you may find OCR’s Questions and Answers on Executive Order 13899 (Combating Anti-Semitism) and OCR’s Enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be particularly useful.