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Recommendations Database

GAO’s recommendations database contains report recommendations that still need to be addressed. GAO’s priority recommendations are those that we believe warrant priority attention. We sent letters to the heads of key departments and agencies, urging them to continue focusing on these issues. Below you can search only priority recommendations, or search all recommendations.

Our recommendations help congressional and agency leaders prepare for appropriations and oversight activities, as well as help improve government operations. Moreover, when implemented, some of our priority recommendations can save large amounts of money, help Congress make decisions on major issues, and substantially improve or transform major government programs or agencies, among other benefits.

As of October 25, 2020, there are 4812 open recommendations, of which 473 are priority recommendations. Recommendations remain open until they are designated as Closed-implemented or Closed-not implemented.

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Results:

Federal Agency: "Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights"

3 publications with a total of 10 open recommendations
Download these results in CSV format or XLSX format.
K-12 Education: Education Needs to Address Significant Quality Issues with its Restraint and Seclusion Data
GAO-20-345, Apr 21, 2020
Director: Jacqueline Nowicki
Phone: (617) 788-0580

6 open recommendations
Display
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should revise its CRDC business rule to require that every school district reporting zeros, regardless of district size or numbers of students with disabilities, affirm the zeros are correct during the CRDC data submission process. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: Education agreed with this recommendation stated that it would determine the best means to implement it. We will monitor the progress of their efforts.
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should develop and implement a CRDC business rule that targets schools and school districts that report very low numbers of incidents and set data-driven thresholds to detect such incidents. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: Education agreed with this recommendation stated that it would determine the best means to implement it. We will monitor the progress of their efforts.
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should develop and implement a CRDC business rule that targets schools and schools districts that report very high number of incidents and set data-driven thresholds to detect such incidents. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: Education agreed with this recommendation stated that it would determine the best means to implement it. We will monitor the progress of their efforts.
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should apply the CRDC business rule targeting illogical data at the school level to all schools, regardless of the number of incidents reported. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: Education agreed with this recommendation stated that it would determine the best means to implement it. We will monitor the progress of their efforts.
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should identify the factors that cause underreporting and misreporting of restraint and seclusion and take steps to help school districts overcome these issues. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: Education agreed with this recommendation stated that it would determine the best means to implement it. We will monitor the progress of their efforts.
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should further refine and clarify federal restraint and seclusion definitions and take steps to ensure that this information is conveyed to school districts. This could include providing common classroom scenarios that highlight the differences between a restraint and an escort, and a time out and a seclusion. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: Education agreed with this recommendation stated that it would determine the best means to implement it. We will monitor the progress of their efforts.
K-12 Education: Education Should Take Immediate Action to Address Inaccuracies in Federal Restraint and Seclusion Data [Reissued with revisions on July 11, 2019.]
GAO-19-551R, Jun 18, 2019
Director: Nowicki, Jacqueline M
Phone: (617) 788-0580

3 open recommendations
Display
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should immediately remind and clarify for all school districts that they are to only report zero incidents of restraint and seclusion when there are none and that they are to leave cells blank to indicate when data are not collected or incomplete. The Assistant Secretary should also ensure that instructions for when to record zeros and when to leave cells blank are prominently displayed and readily available to districts as they complete the CRDC. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Education agreed with this recommendation, but in its initial comments said that it was too late to send such a reminder for the 2017-18 data collection because 94 percent of districts had already submitted their data. Education agreed to feature the instructions more prominently on the website and consider other changes, such as targeted communications and changes in the placement of the instructions for the 2019-20 collection. However, in August 2019 Education emailed districts that had reported zero incidents for the 2017-18 school year and told them to review their data and submit corrections if necessary. It also sent separate emails to all districts that clarified and reminded districts when to report zero and when to leave cells blank. For the next CRDC survey, covering the 2019-20 school year, Education said that it was proposing changes to the survey, including featuring instructions and technical assistance more prominently on the online form. We will continue to monitor Education's efforts to implement this recommendation.
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should monitor compliance with its action plan requirement, and ensure plans are submitted and address all missing data. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Education agreed with this recommendation. Education stated that it had taken steps to more closely scrutinize action plans for the 2017-18 data collection, including directly communicating with districts about their action plans and scheduling calls with any district that requests similar or repetitious action plans over the course of two or more collections. In December 2019, Education stated that for future collections, it would contact each district with an approved action plan before the start of each new collection and reconfirm that the district will take the needed steps to collect and report the data. Moreover, Education is studying ways to augment the online submission system to send automated reminders regarding data elements covered by action plans. We will continue to monitor Education's efforts to implement this recommendation.
Recommendation: The Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights should prominently disclose for past collections the potential problems with using restraint and seclusion data given the known misreporting issues, such as those detailed in this report involving 9 of the nation's large public school districts. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Education initially disagreed with this recommendation, but subsequently said that for the 2015-16 data collection, it would amend the data notes to ensure the public is aware of potential changes by prominently displaying the data notes and clearly delineating the data flaws on its website. We will continue to monitor Education's efforts to implement this recommendation.
High School Sports: Many Schools Encouraged Equal Opportunities, but Education Could Further Help Athletics Administrators under Title IX
GAO-18-425, May 10, 2018
Director: Nowicki, Jacqueline M
Phone: (617) 788-0580

1 open recommendations
Display
Recommendation: The Department of Education's Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights should determine the extent to which Title IX coordinators at the K-12 level are aware of and using the tools recommended in OCR's existing guidance and any barriers preventing their use of this guidance, and use this information in OCR's efforts to encourage them to work with athletics administrators on ensuring equal athletic opportunities. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights
Status: Open

Comments: In November 2018, the Office for Civil Rights sent an e-mail to its Regional Directors to inform them of GAO's report, remind them of the importance of coordination between Title IX coordinators and athletics administrators, and encourage them to look for opportunities in their investigations and compliance work to examine the role of Title IX coordinators at the K-12 level. Agency officials also said they sent a letter to Title IX coordinators reminding them of the tools available to them under Title IX. While these are important first steps, as we noted in our report, we continue to believe the systemic approach we recommended is necessary. We are working with Education to obtain updated information, and will close the recommendation if Education demonstrates that any of these steps results in obtaining new information about the extent to which K-12 Title IX coordinators are aware of and using existing Title IX tools, and any barriers they face in doing so, and that they have used this information to inform their work with Title IX coordinators.