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OCR’s Release of Civil Rights Data Results Draws Media Requests About Possible Discrepancies
April 5, 2021 – The Office of Civil Rights’ (“OCR”) release of its 2017-2018 Civil Rights Data Collection (“CRDC”) results has prompted recent media inquiries to certain Arizona districts regarding possible reporting discrepancies related to students who are eligible for services under IDEA or Section 504.
If you receive notice of a possible reporting discrepancy, confer with your counsel prior to responding to any media request. If a public records request is made, the district may need to assess whether the quantity of reportable data would make the information personally identifiable.
The CRDC includes extensive self-reported data related to OCR’s civil rights enforcement responsibilities. Topics include student enrollment demographics, discipline, and finance and staffing. OCR estimates that it takes a district, on average, over 14 hours to complete the CRDC.
Districts may need to work with OCR to correct any discrepancy from their 2017-2018 report, available at ocrdata.ed.gov/search/school. Now is a good time to identify any possible reporting abnormalities since data for the 2020-2021 report is due in 2022.
To prepare, OCR has released the school and LEA forms for the 2020-2021 cycle, including a user’s guide, available at www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/data.html. OCR made several changes to the data it is collecting this reporting cycle, stating that the changes were made to reduce the reporting burden on school districts.
For more information about the new CRDC reporting requirements, see OCR’s 2020-2021 CRDC: General Overview, Changes, and List of Data Elements (Jan. 8, 2021), available at www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/2020-21-crdc-qa.pdf.
For more information or questions, please contact any of our education law attorneys listed below.
Robert D. Haws
rhaws@gustlaw.com
602-257-7976
Jennifer N. MacLennan
maclennan@gustlaw.com
602-257-7475
Carrie L. O’Brien
cobrien@gustlaw.com
602-257-7414
