Introduction

This report provides results of a Fast Response Survey  System (FRSS) study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics for the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR wanted input for their decision-making process on possible modifications to their biennial survey of a national sample of public school districts. OCR's survey, the Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Survey (or the E&S Survey), is designed to provide OCR's regional offices with current data for their use in targeting compliance review sites and as source material in investigations of complaints. The E&S Survey is a major tool used by OCR to fulfill its mission of ensuring compliance with civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, handicap, sex, and age.

The E&S survey consists of two forms. Each district selected to participate in the survey completes an ED 101, and every school within the selected districts completes an ED 102 (see appendix A).

Since the E&S survey was first conducted in 1968, its contents have changed in response to civil rights policy issues, litigation, and issues raised by the public. OCR continued to redesign the E&S Survey through 1982, adding some topics and eliminating others in order to keep abreast of changing issues and to limit the length and burden of the survey.

The following goals drive the current redesign:

• To increase the accuracy of the data
• To use new technology that will reduce cost;
• To support OCR's national enforcement strategy; and
• To support AMERICA 2000.

The purpose of the FRSS survey was to collect information on districts" ability (and their desire) to report data for the 1992 E&S Survey using automated systems. The FRSS survey results, given to OCR at the end of 1991, have been incorporated into plans for the automated report of the 1992 E&S survey. The FRSS survey results are also being used to inform OCR of districts" ability to report information on some of the items under consideration for addition to the 1994 E&S Survey.

This report presents the findings from the FRSS survey conducted in 1991. It provides information on data maintained by districts in the areas of school discipline, special academic programs, special academic programs, and information systems. The report presents the data for all districts and for districts by location (urban, suburban, rural); size (small, less than 2,500; medium, 2,500 to 9,999; large, 10,000 or more), and region (Northeast, Central, Southeast, West). Data for urban districts and large districts are generally similar, as 44 percent of urban districts are large (compared to 6 percent of suburban districts and 1 percent of rural districts).

Although every statistically significant difference is not cited in this report, standard errors are provided for each estimate. All statistics are based on national estimates (Table 1).

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