Department of Education Releases 2020-21 Civil Rights Data

This week, the Department of Education released the new federal civil rights data for the 2020-2021 school year. Officials have cautioned against comparing this year’s data to previous reports, since 2020-2021 was the first year coming out of the pandemic school closures.

The data show that large disparities continue to exist for access to advanced academic courses, certified teachers and school mental health professionals, for students of color and students with disabilities. The data also reports on school discipline, sexual violence, and harassment and bullying. Dive into the data here.

As is customary, the Department also released reports and snapshots of the data:  

1. A First Look: Students’ Access to Educational Opportunities in the Nation’s Public Schools highlights data from the 2020–21 CRDC on student enrollment, access to preschool programs, access to mathematics, science and computer science courses and other programs, Internet and devices, teachers and school support staff, and school climate factors.
2. Student Discipline and School Climate in U.S. Public Schools highlights data from the 2020–21 CRDC on student discipline, such as suspensions, expulsion, referrals to law enforcement, school-related arrests, and corporal punishment; student harassment or bullying; and incidents of offenses.
3. Student Enrollment and School Characteristics in U.S. Public Schools highlights data from the 2020–21 CRDC on student enrollment and demographics and school characteristics.   
4. Referrals to Law Enforcement and School-related Arrests in U.S. Public Schools  highlights data on referrals to law enforcement and school-related arrests. 
5. Sexual Violence and Sex-based Harassment or Bullying in U.S. Public Schools provides an overview of data on sexual violence, including sexual assault and rape or attempted rape, and sexual harassment or bullying.
6. An Overview of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2020–21 Civil Rights Data Collection,  provides an overview of OCR’s administration of the 2020–21 CRDC.
7. Civil Rights Data Quality from Start to Finish explains why data quality matters and presents steps that OCR took to improve data quality for the 2020–21 CRDC.