Full Breakdown
Trump Administration Suppresses Nonbinary Student Data in Federal School Survey
9/5/2026, 8:43:55 PM
Core Event
The U.S. The suppression follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in January 2025 that defines sex as only male or female.
Background & Context
The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a mandatory, nationwide survey of every public school district that tracks discipline, bullying, advanced-course access and other equity metrics. The 2023-24 cycle was the first to include a “nonbinary” gender category, a step introduced during the Biden administration’s preparation for the survey. Earlier, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) had collected data on transgender and nonbinary students from roughly 1,800 of the more than 13,000 reporting districts.
Timeline
- January 2025 – President Donald Trump signs an executive order defining sex as male or female.
- 2023-24 school year – Survey fielded to schools, including a nonbinary gender option.
- This week (September 2026) – Education Department posts the CRDC tables with gender-identity fields suppressed.
Data & Statistics
- Approximately 1,800 districts reported trans and nonbinary data in the prior collection.
- The 2023-24 CRDC contains data for nearly every public school in the 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico, but gender-identity columns are blanked out.
- The Williams Institute identified around 360 federal data sets where the Trump administration removed sexual-orientation or gender-identity information, spanning Medicare surveys to homeless-youth data.
Official Statements & Responses
No formal press release detailed the suppression itself. The Department’s website listed the new tables under a single added row, without a accompanying analytical report.
Criticism & Opposition
- Lauren Bouton, author of the Williams Institute report, argued that without the data “no one’s being held accountable to these kids.”
- Catherine Lhamon, former head of the OCR under Presidents Obama and Biden, called the action “dangerous and incredibly distressing” because it prevents access to information schools already collected.
Verbatim Quotes
- “We're losing the granular experience of those kids,” — Seth Galanter
- “No one’s being held accountable to these kids,” — Lauren Bouton
- “The way this data was released is part of a long-standing pattern that we have observed for the last two years,” — Ivy Morgan, director of research and data at EdTrust, a Washington, D
- “I think it’s dangerous and incredibly distressing that the federal government collected the data and deliberately suppressed it so that no one can access it,” — Catherine Lhamon, who led the Office of Civil Rights —
What’s Next
The Education Department has indicated that additional tables will be made available in the coming weeks, though no timeline has been provided. Stakeholders—including civil-rights groups, researchers, and state education agencies—are monitoring the situation for any further changes to the survey’s scope or for potential legal challenges to the data suppression.
