📘 Oregon Civil Rights Report (CRDC) – Setup Guide for Synergy SIS
This article is for staff who are brand new to state reporting and Synergy SIS. It explains, in plain language, what we have to do for the 2023–24 Federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and what your role might be.
- The federal government asks schools for data about students and discipline. This is called the CRDC.
- Oregon uses this same data; we do not send a separate state “civil rights” file.
- We store our student and discipline data in Synergy SIS.
- Our job is to make sure the data in Synergy is clean and coded correctly so the CRDC report is accurate.
1. What Is the CRDC in Simple Terms?
The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a big federal survey of all public schools. It checks whether different groups of students are treated fairly and have the same access to programs.
- How many students we have, broken down by race, sex, disability, and English learner (EL) status.
- Who gets access to advanced classes (AP/IB, dual credit, Algebra I in 8th grade).
- Who is in CTE (career/tech) programs or gifted/TAG programs.
- How many suspensions, expulsions, and removals we have.
- How often we refer students to law enforcement or when there are school-related arrests.
- How many harassment/bullying incidents we record, and for what reasons (race, sex, disability, etc.).
- Whether restraint or seclusion is used (if we track it).
- Whether we have law enforcement or School Resource Officers (SROs) on campus.
Oregon does not have a separate “civil rights” report. If we get the CRDC right, we’ve done our main civil rights reporting job.
2. Timeline (When This Happens)
- Now / Pre-Collection: We make sure our data in Synergy is clean and our contact info in the CRDC portal is correct.
- Collection: We upload our data into the CRDC website and fix any errors or warnings it gives us.
- After Submission: We may be asked to double-check or correct some numbers.
If you are new, you will usually help with checking data in Synergy, not with the final upload.
3. Basics of Synergy (For New Users)
Synergy SIS is our main student information system. For CRDC, think of Synergy as:
- Where students live: names, addresses, race, sex, etc.
- Where programs live: EL, special education, 504, TAG, CTE.
- Where discipline lives: referrals, incident types, outcomes (like suspension).
- Where courses live: which classes are AP/IB, dual credit, etc.
Your job is not to memorize every screen. Your job is to follow the checklists below and ask questions if something doesn’t look right.
4. Step 1 – Check the “Foundation” Data in Synergy
Before we count anything, we need to make sure some basic setup is correct.
- District & school IDs: Our Synergy district and school records must have the correct Oregon (ODE) ID numbers.
- School calendars: Each school’s calendar for 2023–24 must have the correct start/end dates and “in session” days.
- Lookup tables: Things like race, discipline codes, and program codes must be linked to state codes (someone has already set these up; you just help check if they are used correctly).
If you don’t know how to check these, that’s okay. This is just to help you understand that if the foundation is wrong, the CRDC numbers will be wrong.
5. Step 2 – Build a Simple “Cheat Sheet” (Crosswalk)
We keep a simple spreadsheet that says: “This CRDC question comes from this place in Synergy.” For example:
- “Total students by race and sex” → Student table, Demographics screen.
- “Number of suspensions” → Discipline module, Dispositions.
- “Students in AP courses” → Course/Section table plus student enrollments.
When someone points at a CRDC question, you can say: “That number comes from this exact place in Synergy.”
6. Step 3 – Discipline, Harassment & Law Enforcement (High-Risk Area)
Discipline is where most CRDC problems happen. If codes are used incorrectly, our numbers can look very wrong very fast.
6.1 Discipline Actions (What happened to the student?)
In the discipline module, each incident usually has:
- A violation (what happened: fighting, bullying, etc.).
- A disposition/action (what we did: detention, suspension, etc.).
For CRDC, we care most about actions like:
- In-school suspension
- Out-of-school suspension
- Expulsion
- Removal to an alternative program
Your job as a beginner might be to spot-check records to make sure the action looks reasonable and is not missing.
6.2 Law Enforcement & Arrest Codes
- “Referral to Law Enforcement” should be its own specific action code.
- “School-related arrest” should also be its own code.
If you see law-enforcement events that are being typed into a notes field instead of using the proper code, flag that for your SIS admin.
6.3 Harassment/Bullying Reasons (Basis)
- Race
- Sex
- Disability
- Religion
- National origin
- Sexual orientation (if we track it)
In Synergy, specific violation codes or extra fields are mapped to these reasons. As a new user, focus on making sure that harassment incidents are recorded using the correct code, not just free-text notes.
7. Step 4 – Program & Course Data (AP/IB/CTE/TAG)
CRDC also looks at who has access to more challenging or special programs.
- AP/IB/Dual Credit: Courses that are marked as advanced in the course catalog.
- Algebra I in 8th grade: A specific course code that we track in middle school.
- CTE: Career/technical programs and courses.
- TAG/Gifted: Students flagged as gifted or talented.
Your beginner task may be to confirm that:
- The right courses are labeled as AP/IB/dual credit.
- Students are actually scheduled into those courses in Synergy.
- Program flags (like TAG and CTE) are being used consistently.
8. Step 5 – Clean-Up Checklists for 2023–24 Data
8.1 Demographics (Who our students are)
- No race/ethnicity entered.
- Missing sex.
- Strange or local-only race codes.
- Special education in a separate module but no IDEA flag on the main record.
- EL services but no EL status, or EL status but no services.
8.2 Discipline (What happened in our schools)
- Incidents with a violation but no disposition/action.
- Dispositions that use “misc” or “other” instead of a real code.
- Suspensions without a length or dates.
- Notes that mention law enforcement without a matching law-enforcement code.
8.3 Courses & Programs (What students are taking)
- Students marked as AP/IB/CTE/TAG with no matching course or program record.
- AP or dual credit courses that are missing the AP/dual flag.
9. Step 6 – Synergy CRDC Tools (If We Have Them)
- A CRDC Setup screen.
- A Student Discipline Options or similar mapping page.
- A CRDC Export report that creates files for upload.
If you see these options, they are mainly for the SIS admin. As a beginner, you might:
- Help review test exports.
- Compare numbers from Synergy reports to what the CRDC export shows.
10. Final Checklist (Beginner-Friendly)
- Review lists of students with missing or odd demographic data.
- Review discipline incidents for missing or incorrect actions.
- Check that advanced courses (AP/IB/dual) are correctly labeled and have students enrolled.
- Check that harassment/bullying incidents use proper codes, not only notes.
- Let the SIS admin know about anything that “looks wrong” or doesn’t match our policies.
You do not have to be an expert in state law or federal reporting to be helpful. If you follow these checklists and ask questions when something seems off, you are doing exactly what we need.
11. Need Help?
If you are unsure about anything in this guide, please open a ticket or contact the SIS admin/IT support. It is always better to ask than to guess when it comes to state and federal reporting.