Next100 Submits Public Comment on U.S. Department of Education's Mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection – Next100
Testimony   Education + Early Years

Next100 Submits Public Comment on U.S. Department of Education’s Mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection

The comment calls for the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to include disaggregated and cross-tabulated data for immigrant students and students in the foster system in its upcoming biennial national education data collection.

Next100 policy entrepreneurs Chantal Hinds and Alejandra Vázquez Baur submitted a public comment to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights regarding the Department’s upcoming biennial Mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection (“CRDC”). The CRDC provides invaluable information, representing key point-in-time data about the state of education for students across the country—particularly those who are most at risk of experiencing opportunity gaps and inequitable educational access and outcomes. Their comment, which you can read below, recommends the inclusion of disaggregated and cross-tabulated data for immigrant students and students in the foster system in its next data collection.

 

RE: Proposed Changes to the Mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection

Docket No.: ED-2021-SCC-0158-0041

Dear Stephanie Valentine: 

On behalf of Next100, an intentionally diverse start-up think tank committed to diversifying the policy making space by empowering impacted individuals and proximate leaders to develop, research, and advocate for policy solutions, we write to offer comments on the proposed changes to the Mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection (“CRDC”) by the U.S. Department of Education (“ED”). The CRDC provides invaluable information, representing key point-in-time data about the state of education for students across the country—particularly those who are most at risk of experiencing opportunity gaps and inequitable educational access and outcomes. 

We applaud ED for its proposals to restore data elements related to early childhood, preschool, and kindergarten; credit recovery programs and Advanced Placement (AP) courses; and teachers. We also applaud ED for adding a nonbinary sex category to more accurately capture the experiences of all students, regardless of their gender identity. ED’s decision to include additional COVID-19 related items for the 2021-2022 school year regarding the amount of virtual instruction that students received, the percentage of students who received virtual instruction, and student access to Wi-Fi enabled devices is critical in understanding the continued impact of virtual instruction for students during these unprecedented times. 

While many of the proposed changes to the CRDC’s data collection will bring clarity and awareness about the experiences of students across the nation, it’s important that we use this unique data collection opportunity to continue to increase our understanding of the specific experiences of certain vulnerable student subgroups like students in the foster system and immigrant students. Below, we offer recommendations for collection of data points related to these student groups.

We appreciate that these suggestions may be viewed as placing additional burdens on school districts. But disaggregating and cross-tabulating student data are critical equity tools, needed to help expose trends and inequities that may otherwise be overlooked, elevate the experiences of underserved student populations and the nuances of experiences of subgroups within these populations, and make it easier for education advocates, policymakers, and other stakeholders to address inequities in educational opportunity. Further, publicly available disaggregated data can help schools and communities plan appropriate programs, use resources where they are needed most, and see important trends in students’ experiences and outcomes, such as discipline and academic achievement. At Next100, we are committed to ensuring equity for all underserved students. As such, our recommendations for both students in the foster system and immigrant students advocate for adequate collection of information about these students disaggregated and cross-tabulated across multiple points of identity.

Students in the Foster System

As of September 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, there were 407,493 children in the foster system across the nation. Of that group, approximately 61 percent are school-age children between the ages of five and seventeen. There are deep racial overrepresentation issues within the system. For example, Black children make up 14 percent of the nation’s population, but 23 percent of children and youth in the foster system. Similarly, Native children make up just one percent of our population but are represented in the foster system at twice that rate. And, in 2019, Latinx children and youth were overrepresented in the foster system in eleven states

Students in the foster system face many challenges including changes in home placements and school placements which disrupt students’ ability to gain academic and social emotional traction, and make educational gains. Laws like the Every Student Succeeds Act (“ESSA”) of 2015 provide federal protections for these students including the right to remain in their school of origin when entering the foster system or changing homes, immediate enrollment in a new school—when in their best interest, and transportation to their schools of origin. ESSA also requires that states include disaggregated academic achievement and graduation data for students in the foster system. State’s reporting on these two data points have revealed what researchers and practitioners in the field have long known—by and large, our nation’s school systems are failing these students. For example, in New York State in 2020, students in the foster system had a four-year high school graduation rate of just 47 percent as compared to their non-foster system impacted counterparts, who had a four-year graduation rate of 84 percent. Additionally, in New York City, data from the 2015-2016 school year—the most recent data available—indicated that students in the foster system were approximately 3.5 times more likely to repeat a grade than all other New York City students. 

The pandemic has compounded existing educational disparities for students in the foster system. A survey in Washington State by a nonprofit organization that supports students in the foster system found that 37 percent of students with disabilities, served by the organization, did not receive special education services in the early stages of the pandemic. These issues were pervasive throughout the country. A New York nonprofit organization that supports students in the foster system reported issues with timely access to remote learning devices and special education evaluations. The learning challenges caused by the pandemic have exacerbated the need for data on this unique population of students.

Collect Educational Data on Students In the Foster System

Ensuring we have data specific to the experiences of these students in our education system is critical. We call on ED to collect, through the CRDC, and report disaggregated data for students in the foster system at the below existing data collection points. Additionally, since there is an overrepresentation of students of color in the foster system overall, we believe it is important to cross-tabulate any reported data about this student group by race and gender. 

COVID-19 Data Points

  • All proposed 2021-2022 school year COVID-19 related data points relating to virtual instruction and Wi-Fi devices and hotspots

Enrollment/Attendance Data Points

  • Preschool student enrollment
  • K-12 school enrollment 
  • Students with disabilities served under IDEA and Section 504 only (Preschool and K-12)
  • English Learner students (Preschool and K-12)
  • Chronic absenteeism 

Discipline Data Points

  • Student disciplinary experiences, including:
    • K-12 students who received one or more in-school suspension
    • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who received one or more in-school suspension
    • K-12 students who received one out-of-school suspension
    • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who received one out-of-school suspension
    • K-12 students who received more than one out-of-school suspension
    • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who received more than one out-of-school suspension
    • Preschool students who received one or more out of school suspension 
    • Preschool students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who received one or more out of school suspension
    • Preschool students who were expelled
    • Preschool students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who were expelled 
  • Transfer to alternative schools for disciplinary reasons, including:
    • K-12 students who were transferred to alternative schools
    • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who were transferred to alternative schools
  • K-12 students who were referred to law enforcement
  • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who were referred to law enforcement
  • K-12 students who were arrested for school-related activity
  • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who were arrested for school-related activity 

9th-12th Grade Data Points

  • Number of students (grades 9-12) participating in at least one credit recovery program
  • Number of students ages 16-19 who participated in LEA-operated high school equivalency exam programs
  • Number of students who participated in Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and advanced math, science, and computer science courses

Retention Data Points

  • K-12 students retained in a specific grade 
  • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) retained in a specific grade

Immigrant Students 

According to the Title III report to Congress, in the 2017-18 school year, State Education Agencies reported enrolling almost one million (994,137) newly-arrived immigrant children and youth in their schools. More recently, in 2021 RAND reported an estimated 321,000 youth from the Northern Triangle and Mexico alone enrolled in K–12 schools between fiscal years 2017 and 2019. That number of students is nearly the size of the enrollment of Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest school district in the country. 

Despite the legal requirements under Plyler v. Doe and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that protects immigrants’ students right to education regardless of status or national origin, there remain a number of barriers to realizing that right for many students. Prohibitive enrollment practices in some districts have made it difficult for newly arrived children to enroll in schools if they don’t provide the proper documents for proof of residency. Many immigrant and refugee children speak languages other than English, including Indigenous languages and other languages of limited diffusion, and schools struggle to provide adequate translation and interpretation resources to support them. Some have gaps in their education, making accurate course enrollment difficult, especially if the child arrives without academic records from their country of origin. Others may come in with pertinent social-emotional needs due to traumatic experiences or increased family responsibilities in a new country. Further, many school leaders fail to recognize the countless unique strengths newly arrived children and families offer to the school community, often making them feel unwelcome and unimportant. Each of these factors contributes to significant enrollment and attendance barriers for immigrant students that impede access to school, skew academic outcomes, and undermine their federal right to an education. 

These realities underscore the need to ensure that immigrant students have fair and equal access to educational opportunities. The CRDC is a unique tool to more accurately understand these challenges, by ensuring that data on their experiences and outcomes are collected through the CRDC and disaggregated.

Collect Data on Immigrant Students

Accountability for students who are historically underserved is extremely challenging without the data to track them. Over the years, advocates have encouraged the federal government to collect data on specific subgroups of English Learners (ELs), which has been used as a proxy for tracking data on immigrant students, though many ELs are born in the U.S. Title III of ESSA already defines “immigrant child or youth” in Section 3201(5) as an individual who is aged three through 21; was not born in any state; and has not been attending one or more schools in any one or more states for more than three full academic years. States and districts are already required to identify and report certain data about these students under ESSA. (Note: The term “immigrant” as used in Title III is not related to an individual’s legal status in the United States, as schools are prohibited from inquiring about that information from students and families as established by Plyler v. Doe.)

We echo the calls of other advocates and urge the federal government to add the collection of data in the CRDC on immigrant children in order to further disaggregate, track outcomes, and more meaningfully identify and address the specific needs of these students. This is aligned with ESSA and OCR’s authority to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin

Disaggregating Immigrant Student Data

We believe it is critical to understand the unique experiences that immigrant students have in K-12 classrooms that may not be fully captured by EL status data collection. In order to expand access to the academic, social, and emotional supports immigrant students need to thrive in school, we must ensure we have data specific to all of the experiences of these students in our education system. We call on ED to report disaggregated data for immigrant students at the below existing data collection points. We also believe it is important to cross-tabulate any reported data about these students by ethnicity, race, and gender.

COVID-19 Data Points

  • All proposed 2021-2022 school year COVID-19 related data points relating to virtual instruction and Wi-Fi devices and hotspots

Enrollment/Attendance Data Points

  • Preschool student enrollment
  • K-12 school enrollment 
  • Students with disabilities served under IDEA and Section 504 only (Preschool and K-12)
  • English Learner students (Preschool and K-12)
  • Chronic absenteeism 

Discipline Data Points

  • Student disciplinary experiences, including:
    • K-12 students who received one or more in-school suspension
    • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who received one or more in-school suspension
    • K-12 students who received one out-of-school suspension
    • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who received one out-of-school suspension
    • K-12 students who received more than one out-of-school suspension
    • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who received more than one out-of-school suspension
    • Preschool students who received one or more out of school suspension 
    • Preschool students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who received one or more out of school suspension
    • Preschool students who were expelled
    • Preschool students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who were expelled 
  • Transfer to alternative schools for disciplinary reasons, including:
    • K-12 students who were transferred to alternative schools
    • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who were transferred to alternative schools
  • K-12 students who were referred to law enforcement
  • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who were referred to law enforcement
  • K-12 students who were arrested for school-related activity
  • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) who were arrested for school-related activity 

9th-12th Grade Data Points

  • Number of students (grades 9-12) participating in at least one credit recovery program
  • Number of students ages 16-19 who participated in LEA-operated high school equivalency exam programs
  • Number of students who participated in Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and advanced math, science, and computer science courses

Retention Data Points

  • K-12 students retained in a specific grade 
  • K-12 students with disabilities (IDEA and Section 504) retained in a specific grade

We are happy to respond to any questions regarding the contents of this comment; please contact Policy Entrepreneurs Chantal Hinds at [email protected] and Alejandra Vázquez Baur at [email protected]. Thank you for your consideration, and your work to protect the civil rights of all students.

About the Authors

Chantal Hinds Education + Early Years

Chantal is an advocate for students involved in the foster system, working to ensure they have the school support they need to succeed. At Next100, Chantal’s work focuses on improving academic outcomes and narrowing the opportunity gap between students in the foster system and their peers. Chantal draws on her experience as an education attorney working directly with students and families impacted by the foster system and seeks to see schools as sources of support, encouragement, and care for this unique and vulnerable population.

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Alejandra Vázquez Baur Education + Early Years

Alejandra is an educational equity and immigration justice advocate. At Next100, Alejandra’s work focuses on expanding systemic academic, social, and emotional supports for K–12 immigrant students and multilingual learners, drawing on her teaching experience in Miami–Dade County Public Schools. Alejandra is a proud product of Mexican immigrants, and previously worked at various education and immigration non-profit organizations in New York City.

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