The proposed 2019-20 iteration of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is currently available for notice and comment. Among the proposed changes is a new reporting requirement for harassment perceived by K-12 school officials to be based on the harassed student’s religion. While the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, the agency responsible for issuing and maintaining the CRD, generally does not have jurisdiction over religion (except, for example, where religion may intersect with race or national origin), the agency estimates around 10,000 of the 135,200 bullying incidents reported in the 2015-16 survey were related to religion. The CRDC will require incidents of harassment based on perceived religion to be disaggregated among the following categories: atheism/agnosticism; Buddhist; Catholic; Eastern Orthodox; Hindu; Islamic (Muslim); Jehovah’s Witness; Jewish; Mormon; multiple religions, group; other Christian; other religion; Protestant; Sikh).
OCR also proposes to expand its CRDC inquiry in the area of sexual violence. In support of this expansion, OCR reported that for the 2015–16 CRDC, the first year questions regarding sexual violence were required to be answered, LEAs reported 9,700 incidents of rape or attempted rape and sexual assault. OCR also characterized the number of sexual violence complaints received between 2009-2018 as increasing “ten-fold.” Specifically, the CRDC proposes to collect the following:
- Number of documented incidents of rape or attempted rape, or sexual assault that occurred at the school, committed by a student
- Number of documented incidents of rape or attempted rape that occurred at the school, committed by a school staff member
- Number of allegations of rape or attempted rape, or sexual assault that occurred at the school, against a school staff member that were followed by a resignation or retirement prior to final discipline or termination Number of allegations of rape or attempted rape, or sexual assault that occurred at the school, against a school staff member that were followed by a determination that the school staff member was responsible or not responsible for the offense
- Number of allegations of rape or attempted rape, or sexual assault that occurred at the school, against a school staff member that had a determination that remained pending
- Number of allegations of rape or attempted rape, or sexual assault that occurred at the school, against a school staff member that were followed by a duty reassignment prior to final discipline or termination
A complete list of ED’s proposed changes to the 2019-20 CRDC are contained in the appendix to OMB Supporting Statement A.09 13 19. School administrators and other interested members of the public have until November 18, 2019 to submit comments at OMB’s website.
If you have any questions about the CRDC or the proposed changes, please contact Josh Douglass at 314-878-5600.
