On December 13, 2024 the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) submitted a comment on the U.S. Department of Education’s Notice for the 2025–26 and 2027–28 Mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). NWLC urges the Department to return to implementing an annual CRDC, as it did during 2020-21 and 2021-22 during the national COVID-19 emergency, and to make significant improvements to the collection and reporting of education civil rights data. The CRDC is a crucial tool that schools, districts, local and federal policymakers, communities, and other stakeholders use to better understand the experiences of certain groups of students, particularly girls of color, LGBTQI+ students, and students with disabilities, and make recommendations on how schools can provide safety and equal access to a quality education to all students. Moreover, enhanced data collection under the CRDC could further shed light on the prevalence and effects of sex-based harassment, including sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking; the treatment of LGBTQI+ students; the enforcement of discipline policies and practices; and the provision of accommodations for pregnant and parenting students, among other issues.

Our full comment can be found here.