A coalition of 17 Democratic-led states filed a federal lawsuit this week challenging a U.S. Department of Education (ED) directive that requires colleges and universities to turn over extensive student data broken down by race, gender, test scores, income level, and academic program—data the states argue will be weaponized against institutions that once embraced diversity initiatives.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, targets a new supplement to the federal government’s longstanding postsecondary data collection system known as IPEDS—the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The new component, called the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) was set in motion by a presidential memorandum President Trump signed in August 2025 and formally approved by the Office of Management and Budget in December. Institutions face a March 18 deadline to submit the data or risk fines and the potential loss of federal funding.
The states contend the survey represents an unprecedented and unlawful expansion of IPEDS, which has operated since 1986 as a methodical, politically neutral data collection tool. According to the complaint, ACTS seeks seven years of retroactive admissions data—something IPEDS has never before required—and demands it on a timeline so compressed that the resulting data is likely to be unreliable. The lawsuit argues the rushed rollout bypassed established vetting procedures, violated the Paperwork Reduction Act, and failed to conduct required privacy impact assessments despite the highly granular nature of the data sought.
“The Trump Administration is on a fishing expedition — demanding unprecedented amounts of data from our colleges and universities under the guise of enforcing civil rights law,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, one of the lead plaintiffs in the case.
The complaint also raises serious concerns about student privacy. Because the data must be disaggregated across multiple overlapping categories—race, sex, GPA ranges, test score quintiles, income brackets, and enrollment type—the cell sizes in some cases could be small enough to effectively identify individual students, potentially exposing their financial aid status, academic records, and other personal information.
The states argue the administration’s true aim is not civil rights enforcement but political retribution against institutions that supported diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The complaint notes that IPEDS is statutorily mandated to operate free of partisan influence—a requirement the states say the ACTS survey openly defies.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, another lead plaintiff, said colleges and universities should not be forced to hand over massive amounts of sensitive student data to satisfy what she called a witch hunt.
The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking the March 18 deadline and permanently enjoining the administration from enforcing the survey. The other states joining the lawsuit are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
