S2511-119

What This Bill Does

The College Transparency Act directs the National Center for Education Statistics to build a secure, privacy-protected postsecondary student-level data system within five years. The system must measure enrollment, persistence, transfer, completion, college costs, aid, debt, repayment, employment, earnings, and further education across institutions, programs, and credential levels. Required disaggregation includes enrollment status, attendance intensity, credential level, race or ethnicity, age, gender, program, military or veterans' benefits, distance education, Pell status, and federal-loan status. The reported bill expressly includes eligible workforce programs and Workforce Pell recipients.

Within two years, NCES must establish a balanced advisory committee of privacy and security officers, two- and four-year colleges, public, nonprofit, proprietary, and minority-serving institutions, state agencies, students, federal agencies, privacy experts, consumer advocates, and researchers. NCES may add only necessary, minimized data elements after consultation and public comment. Health and mental-health data, discipline records, K-12 data, exact addresses, citizenship, migrant or national-origin status, grades, entrance-exam results, political affiliation, and religion are prohibited.

NCES must execute periodic, noncontinuous privacy-protected matches with Treasury and IRS, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Census, Federal Student Aid, Social Security, and Labor Statistics. Matches produce aggregate outcomes and may streamline aid administration, but may not create a standing linked database at Education. Students must receive notice, access their own information, request corrections, and receive written responses.

A public website and analytic tool must provide customizable aggregate comparisons of access, progression, completion, price, aid, debt, employment, earnings, repayment, default, and further education. It may not expose personally identifiable information. NCES may provide restricted deidentified student-level data to vetted researchers, annual feedback to institutions and states, and protected state queries. Public data may be used commercially, but NCES may not sell the underlying data.

The bill bars other agencies from using the system except for authorized research or statutory purposes. Data may not be used to deny student services, conduct law enforcement, collect debt, enforce immigration law, take adverse action against a student or family, or create federal institutional rankings or summative ratings. Willful unauthorized disclosure is unlawful, carries statutory penalties, and requires dismissal of a convicted federal employee. NCES must maintain audits, access controls, retention and destruction protocols, breach response, and Privacy Act compliance.

Title IV colleges or their agents must submit requested program-level data; non-Title IV colleges may participate voluntarily. The institutional requirement begins after five years. The bill repeals the existing federal ban on a student-unit record system and requires Education and NCES to reduce duplicate IPEDS reporting. The reported version adds dedicated staffing and quarterly reports to authorizing and appropriations committees. It appropriates no stated dollar amount.

Who Benefits and How

Students and families gain comparable program-level information about cost, debt, completion, and labor-market outcomes. Veterans, servicemembers, Pell recipients, workforce-program students, transfer students, and distance learners become visible in disaggregated results. Colleges and state systems receive annual mobility and workforce feedback and may replace duplicate reporting. Researchers and consumer groups gain vetted deidentified data and public analytic tools. Congress gains quarterly implementation oversight and more complete evidence about federal student aid.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Title IV colleges, institutional research offices, registrars, financial-aid offices, and reporting agents must collect, validate, and submit student-level program data. NCES must build and secure the platform, run an advisory committee, match seven federal sources, test consumer tools, handle access and correction requests, regulate research access, audit users, and prevent reidentification. Participating agencies must negotiate and operate secure matches. Federal employees and approved researchers face penalties and access consequences for misuse. Students still bear residual breach or reidentification risk despite the statutory prohibitions and technical safeguards.

Key Provisions

• Establishes a privacy-protected postsecondary student-level data system within five years and an advisory committee within two years.
• Requires Title IV institutions to submit program data and seven federal agencies to support periodic protected matches.
• Requires public aggregate comparisons covering access, cost, aid, debt, completion, employment, earnings, and repayment outcomes.
• Prohibits specified sensitive data and restricts sale, service denial, law enforcement, immigration enforcement, debt collection, and federal ranking uses.
• Requires deidentification, disclosure limitation, audits, access controls, breach protocols, student notice, inspection, and correction rights.
• Repeals the existing student-unit-record ban and requires reduced duplicate IPEDS reporting.
• Requires dedicated Education Department staffing and quarterly implementation reports to Congress.
• Expands reported-version coverage to workforce credentials and Workforce Pell while extending implementation from four to five years.