U.S. Education Department Misses Deadline for 2023-24 Civil Rights Data Release

The U.S. Department of Education has not released its Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2023-24 school year as of July 2, 2026, six months after the agency's own December 2025 deadline. NPR reported that the department has not answered multiple requests for information on the cause of the delay.

The dataset has tracked bullying, harassment, and internet access across every U.S. public school for more than 50 years. A former Education Department employee who worked on the collection said a 2025 government shutdown that lasted over six weeks disrupted operations on the project.

The Trump administration has announced plans to move the Office for Civil Rights, which houses the CRDC team, to the Department of Justice. The same administration cut about half of the Education Department's staff in 2025. NPR reported that the administration has also proposed ending a requirement for states to track which students are identified as having disabilities based on race and ethnicity.

Lindsay Kubatzky, director of policy and advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said the proposal fits a pattern of reduced transparency on how students with disabilities are served. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and U.S.

Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas previously used CRDC findings to draft legislation expanding Advanced Placement course access for underrepresented students. A spokesperson for Booker's team said the bill will be reintroduced in the coming days.

A former CRDC staffer noted that the delayed dataset was intended to show which students have internet access as schools incorporate more artificial intelligence tools. The staffer described the team as focused on access and opportunity for marginalized students.