The Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) submitted to the Federal Register for public comment a proposed Civil Rights Data Collection (CRC) information collection request package for the 2021-22 school year. The package describes key civil rights data that OCR intends to collect from the country’s public schools and school districts. OCR plans to introduce some new data categories — including some relating to students’ educational experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic — and restore categories from previous collections (press release, blog post, and Twitter thread).
Among the highlights:
- the addition of COVID-19 data elements to learn the extent to which schools are offering remote instruction to students during the 2021-22 school year;
- restoration and expansion of data about preschool students and teachers; and
- the addition of a nonbinary option to male/female data categories for those schools and districts that already collect the data, for inclusion of accurate information about student identities and experiences.
The Department has collected civil rights data since 1968. The CRDC collects data and information about student access to educational courses and school staff, as well as school climate factors such as the use of student discipline and incidents of student harassment, from public schools serving students in preschool to twelfth-grade. In August 2021, OCR announced the administration of a 2021-22 CRDC — the first time it has conducted a civil rights data collection two years in a row. This additional collection will allow OCR to identify and address inequities in educational opportunities as the nation continues to grapple with the pandemic and its effects on students’ academic, social, and emotional development.