DOI: 10.3886/e103004v1
title: Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for the 2015-16 School Year

description: Since 1968, the CRDC, formerly the Elementary and Secondary School Survey, has collected data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools for use by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in its enforcement and monitoring efforts, by other Department of Education offices and federal agencies, and by policymakers and researchers outside the Department of Education. The CRDC collects information about school characteristics and about programs, services, and outcomes for students. Most student data are disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficiency (LEP), and disability.<br><br>The CRDC is a biennial survey (i.e., it is conducted every other school year), and response to the survey is required by law. The 2015–16 CRDC collected data from the universe of all public school districts, also referred to as local education agencies (LEAs), and schools, including long-term secure juvenile justice facilities, charter schools, alternative schools, and schools serving students with disabilities. Data were collected for the 2015–16 school year. Data collection began in January 2017 and ended in June 2017.<br>The CRDC data are collected pursuant to the 1980 Department of Education Organization Act and 34 CFR Section 100.6(b) of the Department of Education regulation implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The requirements are also incorporated by reference in Department regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975.
description: Response Rates: A total of 17,337 LEAs or 99.81 percent of the universe certified their data.
description: There are a total of 608 juvenile justice facilities in the data collection. Due to a system
error, over 400 of those facilities were not able to completely report data for data
elements in the juvenile justice module. A data element that should have been reported
(but was not) is identified with a -7 in the data file.
description: All public school districts, also referred to as local education agencies (LEAs), and schools, including long-term secure juvenile justice facilities, charter schools, alternative schools, and schools serving students with disabilities in the United States.Smallest Geographic Unit: Street Address
description: Starting with the 2011–12 data collection, CRDC data has been collected from the universe of all
LEAs and schools, including long-term secure juvenile justice facilities, charter schools,
alternative schools, and schools serving students with disabilities. Data are collected at both the
school and LEA levels, but the LEA is the primary responding administrative unit for both. <br><br>For the 2015–16 data collection, the initial target population included 17,422 LEAs and 99,518
schools. Through the course of the data collection, some LEAs were found to have merged,
closed, or opened and were accordingly added or removed from the initial target population.
These additions and deletions resulted in a revised final target population of 17,370 LEAs and
96,440 schools.