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School desegregation has become an increas ingly important issue in non-Southern metropolitan areas. The absence of significant residential desegregation in the suburbs and the concentration of the black population in central cities make effective school desegregation difficult, if not impossible, without consolidated planning for the entire metropolitan region. Cross-busing between central cit ies and suburbs may raise stiff resistance among white parents whose children would be transferred to city schools. An analysis of areawide desegregation in Duval County, Florida, suggests that suburban diffusion of the white population does not in itself constitute a barrier to consolidated planning. A judicious application of desegregation plan features for the entire metropolitan region can produce satisfactory and equitable results.