Maryland AG Joins Multistate Coalition to Support Continuation of Student Anti-Bullying Gender Identity Data Collection

Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown is part of a coalition of state attorneys general who are pushing back against proposed changes to federal data collection that could impact how schools track and address bullying and harassment of students based on their gender identity. The proposed alterations to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) Civil Rights Data Collection would discontinue the collection of data specifically on nonbinary students, remove “gender identity” and “sex characteristics” from the definitions of harassment and bullying related to sex, and halt the collection of data concerning harassment and bullying based on gender identity.

According to Brown, the decision to cease collecting this crucial information is expected to have considerable negative consequences, particularly for LGBTQ+ students. Research indicates that gender expression is a frequent basis for harassment and assault against LGBTQ+ students in schools. A recent study revealed that a substantial percentage of LGBTQ+ students experience verbal harassment due to their gender expression, with a notable portion facing physical harassment and assault. Furthermore, over 80% of LGBTQ+ students report feeling unsafe in school environments.

The coalition argues that ending this data collection will disproportionately harm vulnerable student populations and hinder efforts within states like Maryland to identify and address gender-identity-based harassment and bullying. The attorneys general contend that these proposed changes deviate from established OCR data collection practices without clear justification. They further assert that the alterations would undermine the OCR’s mandate to enforce Title IX’s prohibition against sex-based discrimination, without any evidence that these changes would benefit educational institutions.

Implementing these proposed changes could inadvertently create additional burdens for schools and local education agencies. Educational institutions might need to allocate more resources to review records of nonbinary students and to scrutinize each reported incident of sex-based bullying or harassment to determine if it fits within the newly defined parameters. Schools would also face a dilemma: either assign a binary “male” or “female” designation to nonbinary students, which would contradict state laws and the students’ identities, or omit these students from gender-specific data. This could lead to increased costs for school districts and result in inaccurate data due to the undercounting of bullying and harassment incidents.

In addition to Attorney General Brown, the letter opposing these changes was signed by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Article by Mel Anara, based upon information from a press release from the Maryland Attorney General’s Office.

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