Background/Context: Recently there has been increased emphasis on disaggregating students' experiences collected through surveys based on student identities (Arredondo, 2016). Yet demographic data collection is problematic by nature, often reducing the complexity of an individual's racial, gender, or sexual identity to a single category. Racial identity is much more complex than what is captured by commonly accepted racial categories. It includes three concepts: self-identity (the meaning individuals attribute to their race/ethnicity), category (which category individuals selected from the discrete survey options), and identification (the category observers would place them in) (Rockquemore et al., 2009). Like race, gender is not unidimensional and is a combination of biological sex at birth, gender identity (how an individual perceives their own gender), gender expression (how gender is presented), and gender label (how an individual labels or, in some cases, does not label the intersection of biology, identity, and expression) (Temkin et al., 2017). Similarly, sexual orientation is multidimensional and is defined in terms of sexual identity (how an individual labels their sexual orientation), sexual attraction (who an individual is and is not attracted to), and sexual behavior (whom an individual engages in sexual acts) (Temkin et al., 2017. Despite the need for data collection that includes racial, gender, and sexual orientation demographics, the discrete nature of survey questions diminishes the complexity of these identities into discrete and often mutually exclusive categories. Even with the most robust and comprehensive demographic questions, creating survey questions that fully capture the complexity of individual identities remains challenging. However, best practices suggest including an open-ended other question allowing individuals to self-report their identity. Purpose: This study examines how students in grades 3-12 self-identify when given the option to express their racial, gender, and sexual orientation through a write-in other choice on a survey. The questions guiding our study are: 1. How do students respond when they can self-identify their race, gender, or sexual identity? 2. In what ways do students' understanding of racial, gender, and sexual orientation differ from the discrete identity categories provided? Setting and Sample: The data analyzed in this study were drawn from the 2022 student restorative culture survey (SRCS) administered to students in grades 3-12 in a school district in New England. Across the district's eleven schools, 1,760 students in grades 3-12 completed the 2022 survey. Based on discrete demographic questions, Table 1. provides details of the survey respondents. Of the students who responded to the survey, 11% responded to the open-ended race option, 3% to gender, and 5% to sexual orientation. Research Design and Analysis: The 2022 survey was administered by the school district using GoogleForms during class time to allow teachers to answer clarifying questions that might arise. At the end of the survey, students were asked a series of demographic questions (see Appendix A) where they could check all that apply and/or fill in the opened 'Other' response. Our study employed a questionnaire variance design (Creswell & Clark, 2018) to analyze the open and closed-ended demographic questions. To analyze the responses, researchers one and two reviewed the responses independently and identified emerging themes. We then came together to discuss and refine the themes and identified cases where we did not converge and, through the discussion, further refined the themes into their finalized versions. The last review of the responses by each researcher was assessed for interrater reliability using Cohen's kappa (1968), which revealed near-perfect agreement (race = 0.82, gender = 0.88, sexual orientation = 0.84). Results: Racial Identity: Six themes emerged in the racial demographic category (see Table 2). Roughly 25% of students with an open-ended response also checked a racial category. Of these students, 8.7% selected white, 4.6% African, 3.5% Asian, Asian American, 3.6% Black/African American, 2.6% Multiracial, 1.5% American Indian/Alaskan Native, and <1% Hispanic or Latinx. Gender Identity: Five themes emerged in the gender demographic category (See Table 3). Roughly 26% of students with an open-ended response also checked a gender category. Of these students, five students selected 'boy' (33%), five students selected 'neither boy nor girl' (33%), three students selected 'girl' (20%), one student selected 'I am not sure yet' (6.6%), and one student selected 'Decline to answer' (6.6%). Sexual Orientation: Four themes emerged in the sexual orientation demographic category (See Table 4). Roughly 17% of students with an open-ended response also checked a sexual orientation category. Of these students, six selected 'Bisexual or Pansexual' (43%), three selected 'I am not sure yet' (21%), two selected 'Asexual' (14%), two selected 'I don't know what this question means' (14%), and finally one student selected 'Decline to answer' (7%). Conclusion: Study results highlight the importance of collecting robust student demographic questions within K-12 surveys. Even though the original demographic categories were more extensive than more commonly used survey demographic questions, many students still felt the need to self-identify regarding race, gender, and sexual orientation. These results reinforce the need for those collecting data on K-12 students to include categorical measures of identity and allow students to express their understanding of these complex constructs.