Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark announced on Mar. 11 that she has joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, seeking to stop new Department of Education data reporting requirements for higher education institutions.
The attorneys general say these requirements threaten student privacy and could lead to unwarranted investigations into college admissions practices. The changes involve an added component to the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS), which is used by the Department of Education to collect data from colleges, universities, and technical programs participating in federal student financial aid programs.
According to Clark, “The Trump Administration’s weaponization of data to further its anti-DEI social agenda unnecessarily burdens colleges and universities and puts student privacy at risk. This is another illegal attempt to take a trusted governmental tool and use it to further the Trump Administration’s political agenda, and we are going to court to stop it.” The new rules require institutions not only to provide current data disaggregated by race and sex but also retroactively report similar information from the past seven years. The deadline for submitting this information is March 18, 2026.
Clark said that the rushed implementation has left schools without clear definitions for critical terms, increasing the risk of inadvertent errors or unreliable submissions. She also noted that hundreds of positions have been eliminated within the Department of Education—including offices responsible for clarifying these requirements—making compliance even more difficult.
Joining Vermont in this legal action are attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, HawaiÊ»i, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington. This marks the forty-fourth lawsuit brought by Attorney General Clark against actions taken by President Trump’s administration since January 2025.
A copy of the complaint can be found on Vermont’s attorney general website. Further details about other actions taken by Attorney General Clark are also available online.
