News of data breach, Tuesday’s rally on Chancellor selection and Parent Action conference– only one week away!

1. Yesterday, the NYS Education Department revealed that there had been a breach of personal student data from Questar, the state’s testing company. According to Questar, only 52 students were affected and no highly sensitive data was released.  For more on this, including remaining questions that need to be answered, see the press release today from NYSAPE and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy.

This unacceptable breach only serves to reaffirm our conviction that student data collection must be minimized and security strengthened, and that the state needs to implement and enforce the 2014 student privacy law. Some progress is finally being made on the latter issue, as we describe in the press release, including public hearings planned for this spring.

2. Important!  Please remember to join us at the CPAC/CEC parent rally THIS Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 10 AM on the steps of Tweed, demanding that the Mayor give parents a voice in the selection of a new Chancellor. A flyer in English and one in Spanish are now available. Please post the flyers in your schools and share with other parents.

3. Finally, please don’t forget to sign up for our Parent Action Conference on Sat. Jan. 27 in downtown Manhattan, where we will hold workshops, show the film about fighting charters, Backpacks full of Cash, and discuss what sort of person we’d like to see running our children’s schools.