The U.S. Department of Education's demand for data on admissions and outcomes of college and university students, broken out by race and sex, violates the law and puts student privacy at risk, according to a new lawsuit filed by Attorney General Nick Brown and a coalition of 16 other attorneys general.

The department recently added a component to the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS), a collection of interrelated surveys, to track institutions' compliance with the Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which says that race cannot be used as a factor in admissions. The coalition argues the rushed implementation of the new survey requirements leaves institutions vulnerable to inadvertent errors and unreliable data that could lead to costly penalties and baseless investigations. It also jeopardizes student privacy by requesting in-depth information about students.

"At every turn, this administration is doing all it can to crush the colleges and universities that have made the U.S. a global leader in higher education," Brown said. "We will fight this unreasonable and illegal demand and defend students' right to privacy."

Administered through the Department of Education (ED), IPEDS is a mandatory survey that gathers data from colleges, universities, and technical and vocational programs participating in federal student financial programs. Since 1986, it has served as a valuable tool for reliable data collection and statistical reporting by universities. On August 7, 2025, President Trump issued a memo stating that IPEDS would now become a tool to track "consideration of race in higher education" and investigate universities' compliance with Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

Following the memo, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced new requirements for institutions demanding they report data via IPEDS disaggregated by race and sex and retroactively report data from the past seven years. On December 18, 2025, following a notice and comment period in which members of the coalition provided comments strongly opposing the new rules, the department finalized the new requirements. The deadline for institutions to provide the new data is March 18.

In the lawsuit, Brown and the coalition argue that the Department of Education's rushed implementation of the new data requirements ignores the incredible burden they place on institutions and dramatically increases the possibility of inadvertent reporting errors and unreliable data. For example, in their haste to roll out the new requirements, ED failed to provide definitions for critical terms, leaving universities guessing what information they are supposed to provide, and facing severe financial penalties if they guess wrong. Furthermore, ED has eliminated hundreds of positions, including within the very offices responsible for providing clarity about the requirements to universities.

The attorneys general argue the department's actions are contrary to law, fail to observe the procedure required by law, and are arbitrary and capricious. They argue the implementation of the new data requirements was unlawful and will place an undue burden on colleges and universities.

Joining Brown in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

A copy of the complaint is available here.

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