Time Required to Implement Changes to Data Collection

States were asked to report the approximate number of months it had taken, or they believed it would take, to implement changes in their system of collecting and classifying information on the race and ethnicity of students. Of the eight states that have made changes already, five states reported that it had taken 6 months or less to implement changes, two reported a year or less, and one state did not know how long it had taken (Table 10). In the 42 states that have not made any changes to the five standard federal categories, these estimates tended to be somewhat higher. Although 13 states (31 percent) estimated that the process would take 6 months or less, 16 states (38 percent) estimated that it would take between 1 and 2 years, and 2 states (5 percent) estimated more than 2 years.