US federal judge halts US Department of Education demand for applicants' race data
Change
A US federal district judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking the US Department of Education from enforcing its demand that public universities in the plaintiffs' states submit seven years of applicant race-and-sex data.
Why it matters
The injunction prevents the department from forcing those public institutions to produce admissions records or disaggregated demographic files while the order remains in place. That blocks the department’s immediate pathway to use centrally collected applicant-level data to trigger Title IV compliance actions in the affected states.
Implications
- • Civil rights compliance teams at Harvard University must provide the admissions records requested by the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights within 20 days or face referral to the US Department of Justice.
- • Institutional research and admissions teams at public universities outside the plaintiffs' states must submit timely, complete and accurate race-and-sex disaggregated applicant, admitted and enrolled data to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to avoid Title IV enforcement by the US Department of Education.
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