Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Clean Data in Higher Education Act of 2019”.
Clean Data in Higher Education Act of 2019
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Education to assign a unique numeric identifier to institutions of higher education to facilitate data collection and reporting, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Universal unique numeric data identifier
Assignment of unique numeric identifier required— Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Education shall assign a unique numeric identifier to at least each campus of each institution of higher education that participates in a program under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.) to be used for reporting and disaggregating data for the purposes of the following:
Surveys conducted as a part of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) or any other Federal postsecondary institution data collection effort, as completed in accordance with section 487(a)(17) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)(17)).
Reports required to be filed under section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1092(f)).
The electronic exchange of data under section 485B of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1092b).
Determinations under section 496 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b).
Reports filed on the College Navigator website (as defined in section 132 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1015a)).
Reports filed on the College Scorecard website of the Department of Education (or any successor website).
To the extent determined to be appropriate by the Secretary, any other data systems of the Department of Education that include information on institutions of higher education.
Considerations— In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary of Education shall—
consider the ability to use the unique numeric identifier assigned under such subsection to—
disaggregate institutions of higher education by corporate ownership;
identify an institution of higher education with more than one campus; and
in the case of institutions of higher education described in subparagraph (B), distinguish between a campus with a specific location and a distance education program;
account for interactions of the unique numeric identifier with requirements under title IV of the Higher Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.), including by preventing institutional attempts to evade such requirements by changing the unique numeric identifiers associated with the campuses of the institution;
to the extent practicable, minimize the paperwork burden on institutions of higher education;
create and make public a crosswalk indicating changes in the unique numeric identifiers assigned by the Secretary to each campus under subsection (a) and the numeric identifiers used by the Department of Education prior to the date on which the Secretary assigns each campus a unique numeric identifier; and
annually create and make public an updated crosswalk indicating changes in unique numeric identifiers assigned to campuses, including changes that result from the establishment of new locations, the closing of campuses, and changes in ownership and affiliation.