General Assembly Amends Act to No Longer Require Reporting of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Data

We previously wrote about Public Act 102-0543, which required the Illinois State Board of Education (“ISBE”) to collect and report student sexual orientation, gender, and sex data. ISBE postponed implementation of the Act in response to concerns raised by school districts regarding student privacy under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Illinois School Student Records Act. Now, the General Assembly has passed legislation aimed at addressing those concerns.

Public Act 103-0175 (House Bill 3071) amended the Data Governance and Organization to Support Equity and Racial Justice Act to include language that states ISBE is not required to collect personally identifiable information and report statistical data on the categories of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity (unless required for federal reporting). However, ISBE is still required make anonymous statistical reports available on its website regarding sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity demographics.

Accordingly, school districts are not required to collect and report to ISBE information regarding sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

If you have any questions about data collection or Public Act 103-0175, please contact your Franczek attorney.