LDASC has mentioned on its facebook page about the recent news event in which a number of States are participating in turning over individual student public school records, including name, address, social security number, and disability information for inclusion in a national database (inBloom), a project initially funded by the Gates Foundation.
The states currently releasing information are Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina.
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has taken the position that parental consent is not needed, under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), for the transfer of this information. DOE issued Final Regulations January 3, 2012 amending FERPA, including definitions of "authorized representative" and "directory information" to be broad and allow dissemination of a greater amount of student information without parental consent. Previously, in 2008, the definition of "school official" had been broadened to include, for example, contractors.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, DC has filed suit against DOE. EPIC takes the position that the Final Regulations constitute an amendment of FERPA definitions without needed Congressional approval and are a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The relief sought essentially is for the Court to hold unlawful and set aside the regulations. LDA and LDASC are continuing to monitor the legal action and will provide information updates.
In the meantime, we are aware that parents of children with disabilities, and those without, have concerns. If the intention is to collect data to improve educational approaches, there would not be a need for the personal information. There is the potential for use beyond the immediately planned use. Further, under FERPA, a student, upon completing school, has the option to request removal of data in his/her file, except for the basics - such as transcript. That would be meaningless if all of the data has been sent on to a national database.
Parents can act now to protect the privacy of their children's records. Parents can send e-mails and letters to their State legislators to express their views on the importance of privacy of the personal information of their children. Below are two model letters that parents can use.
If your State is one that has already released student information to the database (Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, or North Carolina), you will want to use the State Model Letter 1 below.
If your State is NOT one of the States that participates in student information dissemination, then you will want to use the State Model Letter 2 below.
MODEL LETTER 1: FOR USE IN STATES THAT PARTICIPATE IN DISSEMINATING PRIVATE STUDENT INFORMATION TO THE NATIONAL DATABASE (inBloom)
Dear _____,
As the parent of a child in the public school system, I care very much that personal information about my child contained in education records not be released to any other parties, including contractors operating databases.
I understand that the State of ____ is participating in disseminating personal information about students within the State to a national database, in Bloom, without the consent of the parents of these students. Such private information includes: student name, address, social security number, testing data, disability information, and other similar private information.
I oppose participation by the State of _______ in this dissemination of personal student information and urge that, at the very least, all parents be offered the right, on behalf of their children, to opt out of participation in dissemination of personal student information and to thereby maintain the privacy of all of the personal information in the educational records of their children.
Please note that this dissemination of student personal information without parental consent is being challenged in court. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, DC has filed suit against the U. S. Department of Education (DOE). EPIC takes the position that DOE has improperly issued regulations to broaden certain definitions in the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in order to allow greater personal student information to be transferred to contractors such as the in Bloom database. EPIC is requesting the Court to hold unlawful and set aside these DOE regulations.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
_______________________
Print Name:
Address:
MODEL LETTER 2: FOR USE IN STATES THAT CURRENTLY DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN DISSEMINATING PRIVATE STUDENT INFORMATION TO THE NATIONAL DATABASE (inBloom)
Dear _____,
As the parent of a child in the public school system, I care very much that personal information about my child contained in education records not be released to any other parties, including contractors operating databases.
I understand that some States are participating in disseminating personal information about students within those States to a national database, inBloom, without the consent of the parents of these students. Such personal information includes: student name, address, social security number, testing data, disability information, and other similar private information.
At present, fortunately, the State of _______ is not participating in this dissemination of personal student information. I urge that the State of ____ to continue to respect the right of privacy of students and to not participate in dissemination personal student information, without parental consent, to inBloom or any other party.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
_______________________
Print Name:
Address:
