“I’m not really sure i see a problem here.”
Agree that as far as the OPs question - does her student need to report race on a college app - there isn’t a problem.
I’m reacting to the potential issue with school recordkeeping. Our district schools have had some awful issues with student records, confidentiality and appropriate data gathering and security, so I’m very sensitive to the issue of what is being reported, where it’s recorded and who has access. A few things I’ve seen at our FL public school:
School forms routinely ask for information that is not needed, such as the student’s social security number. Worse yet, they do not keep those records secure. There were no less than three standard forms each year that ask for that info and then are kept in unsecured areas of the school where volunteers and students have access. Also on one of those forms is a space that asks for mother’s maiden name. With this information, ID theft is a real risk and there is absolutely no reason for a school to ask for it, especially if they are not going to keep the information secure.
The clinic requests that students needing Dr authorization for taking medication have the Dr fax the authorization form to the fax in an unsecured common area. So forms containing student identification information, health information, medical diagnoses and RX info is sent to a fax that students, parents and volunteers wander past.
If your student takes a medication that the nurse dispenses, the recordkeeping to track the medication is a master form that lists all the students and their prescription. The parent has to sign a new RX in when delivered, and when the parent is signing the master form that parent can see the name and RX of all the other students taking medication. Not appropriate or confidential.