Attorney General Bonta Opposes Proposal to End Data Collection on Bullying and Harassment of Students Based on Gender Identity

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, along with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, led a multistate coalition in opposing proposed changes to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) biennial Civil Rights Data Collections. The proposed changes would halt data collection on nonbinary students, remove “gender identity” and “sex characteristics” from the OCR’s definitions of harassment and bullying on the basis of sex, and cease collection of data on harassment and bullying on the basis of gender identity. OCR’s Civil Rights Data Collection is the largest and, in some instances, the only source of nationwide publicly available civil rights education data, making it critical to analysis on student equity and opportunity in education.

“Students deserve an educational environment that acknowledges and respects their gender identity. To do that, educators need to understand how students experience bullying and harassment due to that identity,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Civil Rights Data Collection is a critical component of identifying and protecting vulnerable students from harm. My fellow attorneys general and I strongly oppose the Department of Education's attempt to erase these students’ existence and experiences from the record.”

The impacts of failing to collect this data are significant. Gender expression is one of the most common reasons LGBTQ+ students are harassed or assaulted at school. A recent study found that nearly 60% of LGBTQ+ students were verbally harassed on the basis of their gender expression, more than 20% were physically harassed, and approximately 8% were physically assaulted. More than 80% of LGBTQ+ students report feeling unsafe in school.

In the letter, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that ending this data collection will harm these already-vulnerable student populations, impeding California’s efforts to identify and address gender-identity-based harassment and bullying. Moreover, the halting of such data collection departs from past OCR data collection practices and lacks clear reasoning. The proposed changes would undermine OCR’s mission to enforce Title IX’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sex without any evidence that the changes would benefit schools or local education agencies. 

The changes, if finalized, would actually increase burdens on schools and local education agencies, requiring them to commit additional resources to review nonbinary students’ records, as well as review each reported case of bullying or harassment on the basis of sex to determine if it falls within the Civil Rights Data Collection’s new definition. Schools and local education agencies would also need to contradict state law by assigning a “male” or “female” designation to students who identify as nonbinary, or completely omit such students from gender-delineated datasets. The changes would therefore lead to both added costs for schools and local education agencies and inaccuracies in gender-delineated data due to undercounting of bullying and harassment cases. 

California Attorney General Bonta co-led the letter with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. They are joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

A copy of the comment letter can be found here.