California Student Information Released to Nonprofit

From a story at NBC-San Diego……………..

Data on millions of California students will soon be released to the Concerned Parents Association. NBC 7’s Consumer Bob explains why privacy rights advocates are concerned. (Published Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016) The Concerned Parents Association fought for the data in federal district court and won over the objections of the California Department of Education.

The Concerned Parents Association said they need the information to see if California schools are violating the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other related laws. The database they will have access to includes all children, kindergarten through high school, who are attending or have attended a California school at any time since Jan. 1, 2008.

The database has a student’s name, social security number, home address, course information, behavior and discipline information, progress reports, mental health and medical information, along with suspensions, expulsions and more.

That doesn’t sit well with privacy groups. Beth Givens with Privacy Rights Clearinghouse said it’s “shocking that the court would release this sort of information.”

Eva Velasquez with the Identity Theft Resource Center agreed. “A lot of that information could be used to commit identity theft if it gets into the wrong hands,” she said.

The attorney for the Concerned Parents Association, Rony Sagy, told NBC 7 the information will only be accessible to a handful of people and will have a “Special Master” who will certify that security measures are followed.

“The issue isn’t why they want it,” said Velasquez. “The issue is that it creates vulnerabilities and access points.”

Students and parents can opt-out of the list by following detailed instructions from the district court. However there appears to be very little being done on the state or local level to inform parents of the disclosure.

If you go to your doctor you sign a form (HIPAA) that is supposed to guarantee your medical information privacy. In school children’s information is supposed to be protected by FERPA. There have already been multiple situations across the United States where student information has been “hacked” from school districts. Now, California is going to provide “private confidential information” with a private group that will also be subject to “hacking”.The single best way you can reduce the risk of data/privacy theft is to…Opt-Out of all testing.In Washington State the State Department of Public Instruction (OSPI) has ALREADY shared student information that is supposed to be protected under FERPA with textbook companies as well as testing companies under the guise of “helping” the students. If you think this is ok then there is nothing to do. If you believe it is bad to share student information you can and should contact OSPI to share your thoughts.

Following is contact information:

Website: http://www.k12.wa.us/

Office Hours: 8:00am – 5:00pm
360-725-6000
TTY 360-664-3631

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