Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia's letter to Secretary of Education opposing Data Cuts

November 14, 2019

Betsy DeVos

Secretary of Education

United States of Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202

Secretary DeVos,

I write to express my concern with the Department of Education's proposed cuts to the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) issued on September 13, 2019. Elimination of data collection on school discipline and out-of-school suspensions for Pre-Kindergarten students, as well as elimination of data on the aggregate number, percentage, and racial make-up of students enrolled in preschool, would be extremely problematic. Data is crucial to understanding racial and disciplinary inequities for students in our early childhood education systems.

In Texas, Pre-Kindergarten students were suspended at alarming rates and young students of color and students with disabilities were suspended at disproportionately higher rates than their peers.[1] Studies show how suspensions can negatively impact students later in their educational journeys. Students who are suspended, in- or out- of school, at an early age, often develop negative attitudes about school. They can fall behind on their coursework, leading to poor learning outcomes in the future. These outcomes worsen with repeated suspensions. Additionally, students who are suspended for "acting out" are often victims of an undiagnosed behavioral or learning disorder. These students, therefore, need evidence-based intervention frameworks, special education resources, and/or counseling to help them succeed in the future—not suspensions.

In the Texas Senate, I led the successful effort to prohibit out-of-school suspensions for students younger than third grade in 2017. This legislation came about, in large part, after education advocates and policymakers noted the racial and disability disparities in suspension rates in Texas. I am proud that Texas, and many school districts on a local level, are enacting better policies to reduce overall suspensions for our youngest schoolchildren. In my district, Houston ISD was the first school district in Texas to prohibit out-of-school suspensions, except in extreme circumstances, for the youngest children attending public schools.[2] However, statistics show that the statewide and nationwide problem is not solved yet, specifically for in-school suspension rates. Legislators across the country are relying on accurate, current data to monitor the effects of existing legislation addressing suspension to ensure that we are serving all of our youngest schoolchildren to the best of our abilities.

School discipline advocates and lawmakers need data on aggregate Pre-K enrollment and suspensions rates among Pre-K students to not only address current education inequities but prevent future ones as well. Under your proposed cuts, transparency and accountability would be eliminated if stakeholders were unable to determine the aggregate total of Pre-K enrollment, the racial make-up of Pre-K students, the rate of suspensions among Pre-K students, and the rate of suspensions for students of color, students with disabilities, and students who are English-learners. These proposed data cuts could result in minimizing civil rights protections and making civil rights violations less visible nationwide.

Elected officials, policy makers, and school administrators have a right to know up-to-date, relevant data to craft efficient, best practices and policies to serve our nation's youngest school-aged children. Parents, educators, and community stakeholders are aware of these existing inequities because of statewide data collection and national data collection under the CRDC. Therefore, eliminating the collection of this data does not solve the problems of inequitable and excessive suspension rates. Instead, these data cuts would simply hide the problems. And cutting data collection in the name of saving time to proces paperwork is not an adequate excuse for inaction.

For these reasons, I urge you reconsider cutting critical aggregate Pre-K data, particularly data disaggregated by race, as well as data documenting school discipline and out-of-school suspension rates for Pre-K students, from the mandatory Civil Rights Data Collection. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,