Strengthening Educator Workforce Data Act
- Bill Number
- H.R. 8636
- Origin Chamber
- House
- Congress
- 119th Congress, Session 2
- Policy Area
- Education
- Status
- Introduced
- Latest Action
- 2026-04-30: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
- Last Updated
- 2026-05-21T08:07:39Z
AI-Generated Summary
Purpose
The Strengthening Educator Workforce Data Act aims to improve federal data collection on the teacher and principal workforce by requiring the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to gather and report detailed information on educators' experience, qualifications, and demographics as part of its existing civil rights data surveys.
Key Provisions
- Mandatory Data Collection: OCR must include educator workforce data in every civil rights data collection starting after the bill's enactment.
- Principals: Number of full-time principals per local educational agency (LEA); median years of experience; experience broken into categories (e.g., <1 year, 1-3 years, up to 15+ years).
- Teachers: Number of full-time teachers per LEA and per school; median years of experience (excluding student teaching); experience categories (e.g., <1 year, 1-2 years, up to 20+ years); counts of fully licensed teachers vs. those who are not; fully certified teachers in math, science, English as a second language (ESL), and special education.
- Disaggregation: All data must be broken down (disaggregated) and cross-tabulated by race, ethnicity, and sex.
- Reporting: OCR must produce a special public report after each collection, summarizing statewide totals for principals and teachers, with visuals (e.g., graphs, percentages) by demographics and experience. Underlying data must be publicly accessible online.
- Privacy Protections: Data handling must protect teacher and principal privacy, coordinated with the Department's Chief Privacy Officer to keep individual identities confidential.
- Definitions: Uses standard terms from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), like "local educational agency" (school district) and "teacher" (includes preschool teachers in public schools).
Significant Changes to Existing Law
- Expands the civil rights data collection (under 20 U.S.C. 3413(c)(1))—previously focused on student civil rights issues—to now mandate educator workforce metrics on experience, licensing, and demographics.
- Introduces new requirements for detailed experience categories, subject-specific certifications, and public reporting/visualization of educator data by state.
Potential Impacts
- Government Agencies: Increases workload for OCR and the Department of Education to collect, analyze, disaggregate, and report data; requires coordination on privacy.
- Citizens and Educators: Provides transparent, nationwide data on educator shortages, diversity, and qualifications, potentially aiding recruitment, equity efforts, and policy decisions (e.g., addressing underqualified teachers in key subjects).
- No notable impacts on international relations.
Main Stakeholders
- Local educational agencies (LEAs) and public schools: Required to submit data.
- Teachers and principals: Subject of the data collection.
- U.S. Department of Education (OCR): Responsible for implementation and reporting.
- States and policymakers: Benefit from summarized state-level insights.
- Public and advocacy groups: Gain access to detailed, disaggregated data for research and oversight.
Notable Legal, Constitutional, or Political Implications
- Legal: Builds on existing statutory data collection authority without creating new mandates beyond expansion; emphasizes privacy compliance to avoid legal challenges under laws like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
- Constitutional: No direct implications; focuses on administrative data gathering with privacy safeguards.
- Political: Could highlight disparities in educator diversity or experience by race/ethnicity/sex, informing debates on educational equity and workforce shortages without prescribing policy changes.
This summary was generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies. Refer to the official source document for the authoritative text.
Sponsor
Cosponsors (1)
Rep. Bonamici, Suzanne [D-OR-1]
Recent Actions
- 2026-04-30: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
- 2026-04-30: Introduced in House
- 2026-04-30: Introduced in House
Bill Versions
- Strengthening Educator Workforce Data Act — issued 2026-04-30 — PDF (8 pages)