Ed. Dept. Not Backing Down on Disabilities-Data Mandate

Three years after the U.S. Department of Education started requiring states to collect and report extensive data on students with disabilities, it is still tweaking the rules that states are expected to follow when gathering the information.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the scope and depth of the information that states are expected to collect. A set of proposed revisions to the data-collection requirements are in a public-comment period that ends Nov. 21, and it’s unlikely any major rewriting will occur, based on comments the Education Department has made in response to earlier concerns.

Although some state officials have complained that collecting the required data diverts time and money away from educating students with disabilities, federal officials have said...