(CNN) -- The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has launched an investigation into an Atlanta public elementary school after allegations the principal was assigning Black students to certain classes.

In the letter provided to CNN, the Office for Civil Rights said it will investigate allegations of discrimination based on race and whether Atlanta Public Schools subjected students at the school "to different treatment based on race." It will also look into whether the district retaliated against the complainant.

The Office for Civil Rights launched its investigation November 14, according to a letter sent from the Department of Education to Atlanta Public Schools. The inquiry by the federal government comes more than a year after a Black mother filed a civil rights complaint with the office saying her children's elementary school placed Black students in separate classrooms from their peers based on their race.

In a September 2021 interview with CNN, parent Kila Posey, who has two children at Mary Lin Elementary School, alleged that during the 2020-2021 school year, Principal Sharyn Briscoe designated two second grade classes for Black students without the consent of families, while White students were able to be placed among all six second grade classes.

Posey and Briscoe are both Black.

According to the initial complaint filed by Posey, the assistant principal at the school admitted in a recorded phone conversation in August 2020 that she was aware of the...

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