Advocating for Inclusive Data Collection on Afterschool & OST Programs
21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCCL) are federally-funded afterschool and other out-of-school-time (OST) programs that promote student success, parent engagement, and positive school climates. GLSEN has urged the U.S. Department of Education to undertake LGBTQ+ inclusive data collection to better understand how these programs advance equity for LGBTQ+ students and educators.
OST programs, including many school athletic and extracurricular programs, can provide critical, affirming supports for LGBTQ+ young people. Unfortunately, it is all too common for LGTBQ+ youth, particularly those who are transgender and nonbinary, to feel unsafe or uncomfortable and experience discrimination in school athletic and extracurricular programs. GLSEN is committed to Changing the Game.
In August 2021, GLSEN provided detailed recommendations for revising a proposed national study of 21st CCCL staff and student participants to include LGBTQ+ data collection (see 86 Federal Register §111). Read GLSEN’s full comment letter here.
In September 2021, GLSEN urged the Department of Education to stop requiring state and other recipients of 21st CCCL federal grants to misidentify nonbinary students in their annual data collection and instead enable LGBTQ+ inclusive reporting (see 86 Federal Register §133). Read GLSEN’s full comment below.
Update: The U.S. Department of Education revised its annual data collection form to add a third option for reporting gender for nonbinary students. Additionally, the national study of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program was revised to incorporate inclusive language GLSEN recommended on a measure related to sexual orientation. Additional revisions were made to the national study to add references to “inclusive relationships” among peers and a measure of “practices aimed at cultivating empathy” for others.