Contact: Scott Piro 202-681-4845 Brandeis Center Urges Education Department: Close Data Gap Between Religious Minorities and Other Groups Washington, D.C. (February 17, 2022) – A submission by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) to the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) aims to close disparities in collection data gathered by American public schools – so that religious minorities are no longer disadvantaged. .d Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is the process OCR uses to collect data on harassment and bullying against K-12 public school students on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin and disability. While OCR has been collecting data on incidents related to most categories for decades, at the Brandeis Center’s recommendation, it began tracking religious harassment during the 2015-16 school year. . OCR’s initial report on religiously motivated bullying and harassment found a staggering 10,848 incidents took place that year. Yet unlike race, national origin and other categories – where OCR subdivides offenses into the different groups targeted –OCR still does not classify religious offenses by type of faith. The discrepancy leaves the Dept. of Education with a severe blind spot about dangers facing religious minorities, hindering its ability to develop an effective response. OCR cannot say how many anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim attacks occur in public schools, the way it can pinpoint anti-Black racism or anti-Hispanic discrimination based on national origin. . Addressing this problem, the Brandeis Center formally submitted the following comments in response to the proposed regulations governing CDRC for the 2021-22 school year: . Uniformity: “[LDB] suggests that the reporting requirements for religion/perceived religion-linked bias incidents be modified to mirror the…requirements for other bias-related harassment or bullying categories.” . Inclusion: “[LDB] suggests inserting ‘religion’ to the list of covered categories” – along with the already-included classifications for sex, race, color, national origin and disability – into the regulation sections for “School & District Characteristics” and “Harassment or Bullying.” . Disaggregation: “[LDB] requests that all reported harassment or bullying be [delineated] by religion/perceived religion, using…categories” including anti-Sikh, anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim. . Holocaust education: OCR should build upon congressional adoption of the Never Again Education Act in 2020 by beginning to track Holocaust education: “Only by including a category pertaining to Holocaust education…will the Dept. of Education be able to gauge the accessibility of Holocaust education to U.S. K-12 students, a necessary step in our national quest to eliminate all forms of racial and religious hatred.” . “We applaud the Biden administration for proposing to expand its data-gathering on K-12 religious bullying and harassment, as we previously urged,” said Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights. “The appalling number of religious offenses underscores how essential this data is. It’s precisely why the Brandeis Center now urges the administration to close the data gap between religious discrimination and other forms of bias. When it comes to basic civil rights protection, religious minority children cannot be treated like second class citizens.” . Despite Jewish Americans comprising approximately 2% of the U.S. population, FBI data revealed more than half of all religious bias crimes targeted Jews in 2020. The Brandeis Center’s recent survey of ‘openly Jewish’ Jewish college students found more than 65% felt unsafe on campus – and safety concerns only increase the longer a student remains enrolled. A joint survey by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International found that most college students who experienced antisemitism on campus do not report it. And despite the growing problem of online harassment, a new study from the group Jewish on Campus found most campus antisemitism still occurs in-person. . “Students do not come to college campuses as blank slates. By the time they have entered college, they have absorbed copious amounts of information from home, school and social media,” wrote the Brandeis Center in its submission. “Often the college students who harass of bully other college students harassed or bullied their peers during their K-12 years. Therefore, it is vital for CRDC to include reporting requirements on religion/perceived religion issues to the same detailed extent as it covers other categories of bias incidents. Collecting this information will significantly contribute to safer K-12 environments for all students.” . About The Louis D. Brandeis Center: The Louis D. Brandeis Center, Inc., or LDB, is an independent, nonprofit organization established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. The Brandeis Center conducts research, education, and advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses. It is not affiliated with the Massachusetts university, the Kentucky law school, or any of the other institutions that share the name and honor the memory of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice.