Please send comments to NYSED today to strengthen privacy regulations; and info on SAT day

Dear folks,

 As a result of the controversy over inBloom and related issues, the NY State legislature passed Education Law §2-d in 2014, with the goal of protecting the privacy and the security of student data that schools, districts and states as well as their contractors collect and disclose. After nearly five years, the NY State Education Department has finally issued proposed regulations to be used in enacting and enforcing this law..  The deadline for commenting on these regulations is this Sunday, March 31.

Our Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, along with NYSAPE and Class Size Matters, has sent detailed comments to NYSED on how these regulations should be improved, especially as they omit several important provisions of the law.  We have also prepared an email you can send NYSED in support of our proposed changes by clicking here.  You can of course alter this email in any way you like, or send your own comments to [email protected] , but please remember the deadline is Sunday.

 Today is SAT day in NYC schools and in many other districts and states across the country.  The College Board not only asks students many personal questions in their pre-test surveys before they take the exam without making clear that answering them is voluntary, but also sells the information they collect to other organizations and companies at 45 cents per name.  An article about this practice was published in the NY Times last summer.  Meanwhile, the US Department of Education has also advised states and districts that allowing the College Board to ask certain sensitive questions of students in school without parental consent which it then shares with other organizations may be illegal, according to three federal laws: FERPA, IDEA and PPRA.

 Please ask your children what questions they were asked in the pre-test surveys,  and whether they were informed that answering these questions was purely optional.  If they provided any personal information you don’t want shared or sold, you can opt out of the Student Search Service on the College Board website, and/or demand that College Board delete the data.

 Please also let us know if you find out that certain questions were asked of your kids that you consider overly sensitive by emailing us at [email protected]

Thanks

Leonie Haimson

Co-Chair, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy