The facts:

1. We were contacted by a third party in May, 2006 because an interracial family living in Staten Island, NY wanted to "get in contact with us" regarding a problem she was having with her biracial daughter's racial classification in her school.
2. The parents of the 5-year-old were told they could not get reports on the girl's performance unless they chose one of only five racial and ethnic options. Apparently, this had something to do with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The parent's refused to pick only one and were told if they did not choose, the principal would choose for them.
3. The parents received some local media attention. School personnel, state officials, and federal folks commented on the racial categories. The federal folks told them that the NY schools could put whatever racial categories they wanted on their forms and they were not limited to the federal categories, which is basically true.
4. When the third party failed to reach the family, I called the mother. She sent a message to me that the NY State Department of Education had decided to add "other" or "biracial" to the forms. I left several messages for the mother and finally sent her an e-mail telling her that we would have a problem with "other," which we have managed to get rid of on forms.
5. The mother e-mailed to tell me she had done all she was willing to do and she didn't mind if her daughter was referred to as "other." The husband e-mailed me to say he would "see what transpires." In other words, they were done with the whole matter.
6. A newspaper reported on June 26th that the NY State Education Department would add "mixed" or "other" on its student ID forms beginning in the 2006-07 school year. It said the mother was "tickled."
7. I began calling the NY State Education Department in mid-August to verify the story. After getting transferred to over 25 people, I left a message for Ron Danforth, the person who I was told had the information. After several days without a return call, I called the same department and was told that the person I had to talk to now was Martha Musser, not Ron Danforth and she was "too busy to speak to me." Not one to give up, I persevered and finally spoke to her. She told me The State of New York will NOT be adding a "multiracial," "mixed," "other" category or anything to accommodate interracial families on ID forms. In fact, if they do anything at all, they will follow the US Department of Education guidelines. They will not give students the option of a multiracial category, but they will not be an obstacle for it, whatever that means.
8. Ms. Musser, at the STATE Education Department also insisted that the New York CITY schools had added the classification of "multiracial quite some time ago." Now I was tickled. I began calling the NY city schools. I also began looking at their student data online and did not see any "multiracial" category. After an hour of being transferred around, I was no closer to finding anyone who knew what racial categories the city uses. The departments of information reporting, elementary school admissions, middle school admissions, high school admissions, student enrollment, information technology, teaching and learning, accountability and assessment, and press relations had no idea. They still have not responded at all.
9. Then something very interesting happened. Two days after talking to the STATE personnel, I received a phone call from Mr. Danforth, who is in the same STATE office as Ms. Musser (who that had told me they were not going to accommodate any additional category for multiracial students). Mr. Danforth now told me that he indeed has added the "multiracial" category for students for the 2006-2007 school year and it will continue every year." He confirmed it in an e-mail to me.
10. Before being overjoyed, I started thinking about what he had told me. He said they had "added the multiracial category," but not exactly what forms they added it to. So, I e-mailed him and asked this:
    Just for clarification, will the multiracial category appear on the forms that the students or their parents fill out? How will the general instructions read? We are concerned with what the children and their families will actually see, so I would appreciate your sending me one of the self-identification forms. Thank you.
    This was his response:
    The State Education Department does not have and does not provide to schools and districts self-identification forms. We will be providing guidance to schools and districts. That guidance has not been drafted yet, but will indicate that for the paper forms, as in the sample sent to you, students should be reported in one of the six listed categories...How they actually get there will be left to local decision making. We would of course provide suggestion if the school/district was totally lacking in ideas of their own.

So, a category called "multi-racial" will appear on INTERNAL forms only, specifically something called the BEDS data forms. In other states, the state education departments do provide things like state testing, where they indicate racial identification. Apparently, New York does not do this.

So what the heck happened in New York? We're not really sure, but we are certain (as of today) that all schools, public and private, will not be carrying the multiracial classification on all forms that require racial identification at the state level. They will be using it on internal forms, so that if a district wanted to use "multiracial," they could; the State Department of Education will not stand in their way. For now at least.

Also, they will somehow specify that someone who is of Hispanic origin can not be multiracial.

Our best advice at this time is for students or their parents to give this information to their schools and insist that multiracial students can be reported to the state as multiracial and that you want the term "multiracial" to appear on all forms, identification, tests, etc. If you are in New York City, you can call David Cantor at 202-374-5141 and find out what your specific school is putting on their forms. We will keep Project RACE members informed on this issue in New York.

Susan Graham
Executive Director
Project RACE