Since 1968, OCR has collected civil rights data related to students' access and barriers to educational opportunity from early childhood through grade 12. These data are collected from all public schools and districts, as well as long-term secure juvenile justice facilities, charter schools, alternative schools, and special education schools that focus primarily on serving the educational needs of students with disabilities under IDEA or section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

The CRDC collects information about student enrollment; access to courses, programs and school staff; and school climate factors, such as bullying, harassment and student discipline. Most data collected by the CRDC are disaggregated by race, ethnicity, sex, disability, and English Learners.

Originally known as the Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Survey, OCR began by collecting data every year from 1968 to 1974 from a sample of school districts and their schools. Over time, the schedule and approach to data collection has changed. Since the 2011-12 collection, the CRDC has been administered every two years to all public school districts and schools in the 50 states and Washington, D.C., and OCR added the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for the 2017-18 CRDC. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in school closures nationwide, OCR postponed the 2019-20 CRDC and instead collected data from the 2020-21 school year.