U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center announced the reintroduction of the All Students Count Act in a Zoom news conference Thursday morning.

The bill, which would require more comprehensive disaggregation of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander student data, aims to ensure that the diverse needs of underrepresented AANHPI communities are better accounted for and supported across the country.

“Factual data is critical to decision-making,” Hirono said. “If we can get much more factual information within the AANHPI community, made up of Samoans, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, so many other Southeast Asians and so many other groups … that would enable us to not just lump everybody together in the AANHPI grouping, but to have a much better awareness of what those particular needs are.”

Hirono previously introduced similar legislation in 2015, but it was two votes shy of passing, said SEARAC Executive Director Quyen Dinh. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has since heightened disparities among AANHPI groups, particularly in schools, and further highlighting the need for more disaggregated data on specific populations in order to determine their individual needs, Hirono said.

Jayapal pointed out that there is also an overly broad labeling that Asian populations generally succeed in school, perpetuating a “dangerous” stereotype.

“It also perpetuates this racial wedge that minimizes the challenge that so many of our communities face,” Jayapal said.

Following remarks by Hirono and Jayapal, a lineup of AANHPI organizations and groups shared their reasons for supporting the bill, some of which have already seen smaller yet similar initiatives benefit their own local communities.

Tongan American student Fahina Laut shared her experience at an Oakland high school in California, which passed legislation for the collection of disaggregated data among Asian American Pacific Islanders in 2016. Three years later Laut was in her senior year when the teachers in the state went on strike.

“With talks of budget reform, the school board was planning to cut many of the programs supporting Asian Pacific Islanders,” Laut said.

It was then that she learned that Pacific Islander students in Oakland public schools had some of the lowest graduation and literacy rates compared with those of other ethnic backgrounds, she said. They also had some of the highest absentee and suspension rates compared with other ethnic groups, she said.

The data spurred Laut and other Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students in her school to advocate for the continued funding of the school’s AAPI programs.

“We were able to prevent budget cuts using (disaggregated) data to show the school board that NHPIs are struggling and there is a need to continue the funding for NHPI programs,” Laut said. “We could not have done this without disaggregated data.”

Laut and her classmates successfully saved the programs, which she said both immensely supported her throughout her education and influenced her aspirations.

“Without proper data, without proper funding and without programs focused on supporting our NHPI students, our NHPI youth who are struggling remain invisible and underserved,” she said.

In light of the uptick in anti-Asian incidents in recent years, disaggregated data around AANHPIs would also promote better understanding of the various Asian communities that exist in the U.S., said Japanese American Citizens League Executive Director David Inoue.

Despite the many who expressed their support at the news conference, Hirono pointed out that introducing the bill is only the start of an uphill battle.

“There are, as you know, lots of states in our country, sad to say, that do not want people to learn about the diversity of our country,” Hirono said. “We’re going to need to all work together to get the word out, because there are people who do not think that this is necessary at all.”

Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.