Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced on Mar. 11 that he has joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over new data reporting requirements for higher education institutions.
The lawsuit challenges recent changes to the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS), which now require colleges and universities to provide detailed, disaggregated student data by race and sex, including retroactive information from the past seven years. The coalition argues these requirements were implemented too quickly, risk student privacy, and could result in unreliable data and costly penalties for institutions.
According to the announcement, IPEDS is a mandatory survey administered by the Department of Education that has collected statistical information from postsecondary institutions since 1986. However, following an August 7, 2025 memo from President Trump and subsequent actions by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, IPEDS was expanded to track compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard regarding consideration of race in admissions.
The attorneys general say that not only did the Department of Education fail to provide clear definitions for key terms in its new requirementsāleaving universities uncertain about what information they must reportābut also eliminated hundreds of positions within the department responsible for clarifying such rules. They argue this increases the likelihood of inadvertent errors and unreliable reporting.
Additionally, concerns have been raised about student privacy due to requests for more detailed individual-level data. The coalition contends that many institutions have legal obligations to protect student information, which may be compromised under these new demands.
Neronha is joined in this legal action by attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, HawaiŹ»i, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington. The group maintains that the administration’s actions are unlawful and place an undue burden on colleges and universities.
