The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education has released A First Look: The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for 2023-2024. In its first summary analysis of the most recent CRDC, OCR reports that for the 2023-2024 school year, 49.7 million school-age children were enrolled in public schools. Fifteen percent of these students qualified for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and 4 percent qualified under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (504). Although IDEA-eligible students represent 15 percent of the school-age population, the CRDC shows these students account for 23 percent of those mechanically restrained, 68 percent of those secluded, and 73 percent of those physically restrained. High school students with disabilities also remain significantly underrepresented in accessing computer science (6 percent) and advanced mathematics (6 percent); and, just 5 percent are accessing dual enrollment or dual credit programs in high school. The CRDC is conducted biennially to obtain data related to public schools' requirement to provide equal educational opportunity. The mandatory survey gathers information from all public schools serving students in preschool through 12th grade and includes topics such as enrollment/student characteristics, school climate, teachers, courses and school programs. OCR explains that it uses the data "to enforce civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, and disability." For the 2023-24 school year, the CRDC includes data from more than 17,000 school districts and 97,000 schools nationwide.