CRDC: School Behavior and Climate in Washington State, 2017-18

2017-18 data from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection covers student enrollment, discipline, and school climate for Washington State schools. The dataset includes 30 columns tracking metrics like chronic absenteeism, suspensions, expulsions, and harassment incidents, disaggregated by student groups. Data was reported directly from school districts to the federal Office for Civil Rights and represents a biennial survey required since 1968.

Use Cases

• Analyzing disparities in Out of School Suspension and In School Suspension rates by StudentGroup (e.g., race, sex, disability).
• Investigating school safety by mapping Students Reported as being Harrassed Based on Race/Ethnicity and Students Reported as being Harrassed Based on Disability.
• Assessing school-to-justice system pathways using Referral to Law Enforcement and School Related Arrest columns.
• Evaluating attendance and engagement through Chronic Absenteeism rates at the SchoolName and DistrictName level.
• Comparing discipline outcomes across County and ESDName using Enrollment and PercentISS data.

Strengths

• Data is disaggregated by key demographics (race/ethnicity, sex, disability, limited English proficiency), enabling equity analysis.
• The collection is a long-standing federal mandate, with biennial surveys conducted since 1968, providing a historical context.
• Cross-platform presence on Socrata and Data.gov signals its importance and broad availability for public accountability.

Limitations

• The data is not validated by the state education agency (OSPI), so figures may not match official state reports.
• Some data points are suppressed or unavailable to protect student privacy, creating gaps in the record.
• Metadata conflicts exist: one source lists a license as 'other-license-specified' while another lists 'None', and precise row counts and file sizes are unknown.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR)

Collection Method

Mandatory biennial survey reported directly from school districts to the federal OCR.

Time Range

2017-18 school year

Freshness

The dataset was last updated on 2025-05-10, but it contains data from the 2017-18 school year, which was the most recent CRDC data available as of May 2021.

Geography

Washington State, USA, with breakdowns by County, ESDName, DistrictName, and SchoolName.