The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is generally a biennial (i.e., every other school year) survey required by the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Office for Civil Rights Data Collection CR).
The CRDC collects data from a universe of all public local educational agencies (LEA) and schools that receive federal financial assistance from (ED), including justice facilities, charter schools, and alternative schools.
Tribal schools operated by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education and schools operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity are not required to collect and submit data to the CRDC, at this time. School districts in U.S. territories are also not required to collect and submit data for the CRDC at this time. The only exception is Puerto Rico, which is treated as a state under the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015. Puerto Rico, for the first time, participated in the 2017-18 CRDC.
Data from the 1968-69 through the 2021-22 CRDC surveys are available on the OCR CRDC website.
Information about collecting and reporting data for the CRDC is available at this link.
The CRDC collects data on leading civil rights indicators related to access and barriers to educational opportunities at the early childhood through grade 12 levels. OCR relies on the CRDC data it receives from public school districts as it investigates complaints alleging discrimination, determines whether the federal civil rights laws it enforces have been violated, initiates proactive compliance reviews, and provides policy guidance and technical assistance to schools and school districts.
The CRDC is a mandatory data collection that schools and school districts that receive federal financial assistance from ED are legally obligated to complete.
Section 203(c)(1) of the Department of Education Organization Act conveys to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights the authority to "collect or coordinate the collection of data necessary to ensure compliance with civil rights laws within the jurisdiction of the Office for Civil Rights." See 20 U.S.C. § 3413(c)(1).
The civil rights laws enforced by OCR for which the CRDC collects data include: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on sex; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. OCR's implementing regulations for each of these statutes require recipients of ED's federal financial assistance to submit to OCR "complete and accurate compliance reports at such times, and in such form and containing such information" as OCR "may determine to be necessary to enable [OCR] to ascertain whether the recipient has complied or is complying" with these laws and implementing regulations. See 34 CFR § 100.6(b)(incorporated by reference into 34 CFR §§ 104.61 and 106.81).
For more information about the CRDC and OCR, please visit: http://crdc.ed.gov and https://civilrightsdata.ed.gov.
The CRDC data can be accessed at https://civilrightsdata.ed.gov. If anyone has concerns about the accuracy of the data reported, then please contact OCR by emailing ocrdata@ed.gov. Please include "CRDC Data Quality Concern" in the subject heading.
A detailed list of 2023-24 CRDC data elements is available here.
he 2023–24 CRDC is similar to the 2021–22 CRDC. Both CRDCs were approved by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act on April 18, 2023, under Control Number 1870-0504. All the documentation submitted to OMB can be found here.