Listen to the article
A federal judge on Friday pushed back the looming deadline for colleges to provide the U.S. Department of Education with detailed new data on their applicants and admitted students broken down by race and sex.
Seventeen Democratic attorneys general are suing to stop the data collection, which the Education Department has said is needed to ensure colleges aren’t using race as a factor in admissions. When announcing the lawsuit, California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the data collection a “fishing expedition” that the Trump administration would use to levy fines against colleges.
Friday’s ruling pushes back the deadline by one week to March 25.
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, a George W. Bush appointee, said he moved the deadline to give the court time to respond to the 17-state coalition’s motion. At a hearing scheduled for March 24, Saylor is set to consider temporarily blocking the Education Department from requiring colleges to complete the survey by the deadline.
While the lawsuit progresses, the attorneys general have also asked Saylor to block the agency from accessing the information colleges have already provided or using it to either launch investigations or impose penalties on institutions.
The new data collection was mandated in an August memo from President Donald Trump. It directed the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System — a long-standing collection of surveys administered by the Education Department — to collect the new data from colleges to ensure they were complying with the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down race-conscious admissions.
The new survey seeks to collect a bevy of information about applicants and admitted students, including their standardized test scores, family income and GPA — all broken down by race and sex. Along with information for the 2025-26 academic year, colleges must also provide data for the past six years.
Colleges and higher education groups have voiced concerns about being able to provide accurate data under a tight timeframe, especially as some institutions said they do not already collect the newly required information.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday about the ruling.
However, on Friday, an Education Department spokesperson pushed back on the lawsuit in an email to Higher Ed Dive.
“The Department’s efforts will expand an existing transparency tool to show how universities are taking race into consideration in admissions,” Ellen Keast, the agency’s press secretary for higher education, said in an email. “What exactly are State AGs trying to shield universities from?”
