New civil rights data reveals shifts in enrollment, discipline and teacher diversity in U.S. public schools

The federal Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2023-24 school year, covering roughly 49.7 million students, shows a 12% jump in public preschool enrollment to 1.5 million, while K-12 enrollment slipped by about 1%. Suspension figures rose, with 2.5 million out-of-school and 2.3 million in-school suspensions, adding roughly 100,000 cases to each category since the previous report. Black students experienced more than four times the lost instructional days compared with white students due to out-of-school suspensions.

Students with disabilities now account for 19% of public school enrollment, up from 17%, and they face higher suspension rates and limited access to advanced courses. For the first time since the 1970s, teacher demographics were collected, revealing a workforce that is 75% white, 9% Black and 11% Latino, a stark mismatch with the diverse student population. Nonbinary student data collected under the previous administration was withheld from release.