Attorney General Clark Opposes U.S. Department of Education's Effort to Remove Reporting Requirements that Address Disparities for Students with Disabilities

Attorney General Charity Clark today joined a multistate comment letter opposing the U.S. Department of Education's (U.S. ED) proposal to remove certain reporting requirements for states to report on disproportionality in special education, including racial and ethnic disparities in disability identification, and in suspension and expulsion rates for children with disabilities, including racial and ethnic disparities. Attorney General Clark and the coalition argue that data and analyses is crucial for the U.S. ED and for interested stakeholders to identify whether students with disabilities, or students of particular a racial or ethnic group with disabilities are disciplined more often than their peers and whether students of a particular race or ethnic group are disproportionately identified in specific disability categories. In the letter, the attorneys general urge for U.S. ED to withdraw its proposal, because the states, advocacy groups, and families need the data presented in a way stakeholders can access to promote equitable educational opportunity and inclusion in education for all students regardless of race, ethnicity, and disability status.

The ED's proposed revisions will hamper decades -long efforts to address disparities in school discipline and special education identification, including disparities based on race or ethnicity. Historically, stakeholders successfully used this data to develop guidance for states to improve practices around school discipline, and to identify common challenges and collaborate on addressing issues of concern. Under the proposed revisions, the data will only be available in a massive database that is not easily accessible or navigable to the public. Therefore, interested States and advocacy groups will have less meaningful access to these important data to advocate on behalf of students.

In the letter, the attorneys general request that the U.S. ED retain methodologies for reporting race-based disparities for students with disabilities in the State Performance Plans and Annual Performance Reports (SSP), as they are currently formulated, arguing that removing the reporting requirements will:

• Undermine Congress' intent of producing higher quality, more relevant, and readily accessible data in addressing disparities and run contrary to the history and aspirations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
• Minimally reduce the reporting burden by 0.4%, which does not justify the loss of important data essential for transparency and problem-solving tools to give students equal access to education, as required by the statute.
• Will end much needed oversight and opportunities for collaboration with U.S. ED to address disparities in school discipline and restrictive placements for children with disabilities, including students of color with disabilities, and will render helpful data less accessible to the public.

Joining Attorney General Clark in filing the comment letter are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington.

A copy of the comment letter is available by request.

CONTACT: Amelia Vath, Senior Advisor to the Attorney General, 802-828-3171