Civil Rights Data Collection

What is the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)?

The U.S. Department of Education (USED) conducts the bi-annual Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) to collect data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation’s public schools. This data collection is published nationally. 

In the past, this collection was submitted by designated staff at select Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and Charter Schools in North Carolina. As of the 2011-12 school year, all districts in the nation are required to report this data on behalf of all schools to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

What is the purpose of the CRDC? 

The purpose of the U.S. Department of Education’s (Department) CRDC is to obtain data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools, including student enrollment and educational programs and services, disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, English learner (EL), and disability. The CRDC is a longstanding and important aspect of the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) overall strategy for administering and enforcing the civil rights statutes for which it is responsible. 

CRDC Authorization 

The CRDC is a mandatory data collection, authorized under the following statutes and regulations: 
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of1964, 
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of1972, 
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,and 
• The Department of Education Organization Act (20 U.S.C. § 3413). 
The regulations implementing these provisions can be found at 34 CFR 100.6(b); 34 CFR 106.71; and 34 CFR 104.61.

What is NCDPI's role in the CRDC?

NCDPI will extract data available from state level systems that are already required at the state level for other reporting purposes. NCDPI will submit the data to the federal submission portal for all PSUs.  PSUs are responsible for and required to update data in the Federal Submission tool and provide any remaining data elements not collected by the state. Finally, they must certify the data collection within the Federal Submission Portal.

Notification that the Federal submission period has begun will be sent from the Federal CRDC Partner Support center and from NCDPI.

When is the data collected?

The Federal submission window generally opens in the fall and closes within 75 business days. The submission window dates are subject to change per the OCR. LEAs and Charter schools must verify, add data and certify the collection within the 75 day time-frame.