Seventeen states filed suit this week seeking to block the Department of Education’s new requirement that four‑year colleges report detailed, race‑ and sex‑disaggregated admissions and applicant data through IPEDS. States argue the agency unlawfully expanded the data collection without proper Administrative Procedure Act procedures and has imposed an onerous compliance burden on institutions. The Education Department designed the expanded survey to monitor compliance with the 2023 Supreme Court decision that limits race‑conscious admissions; the new form asks for historical applicant-level measures including test scores, family income and GPA by race and sex for admits and enrollees across six years. Higher‑education officials have warned the complexity and timing of the request will strain institutional research offices. The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction and a court declaration that ED exceeded its authority. If successful, the legal challenge could delay or reshape the department’s enforcement strategy and force renewed negotiations with colleges and accrediting bodies about what data are feasible to produce.