Advocates and students urge passage of Intro 11-34 to disaggregate city demographic data

A broad coalition of community groups, service providers and student advocates urged the City Council to pass Intro 11-34, legislation to expand how city agencies collect and report race and ethnicity data. Council members and witnesses said more granular data is necessary to identify disparities and target services that are currently hidden when many ethnic groups are aggregated into broad categories such as “Asian.”

Council members framed the bill on the record when introducing a package of measures: “Intro 11-34, sponsored by council member Krishnan, will require city agencies that collect demographic information to include additional data on race and ethnicity,” the committee chair said as part of his opening remarks. The bill’s supporters argued detailed ethnicity data would improve public health responses, language access, school services and social‑service delivery.

Young people with the Asian American Student Advocacy Project testified…