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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Louisiana Educator: Update on Student Privacy Legislation

Louisiana Educator: Update on Student Privacy Legislation:



Update on Student Privacy Legislation



Most of the discussion in the House Education Committee Wednesday centered on Representative Schroeder's HB 946 on student data privacy. The committee heard emotional testimony from parents from all parts of the state who were appalled that State Superintendent John White had agreed to hand over much critical private student data with the ID of such students to private data collectors and to the Louisiana Workforce Commission.  These parents were angry that such private information could have been mishandled by the DOE and that parents were never consulted over the data use.  It was also pointed out that the Federal FERPA regulations have been changed by the OBama administration to allow extensive student data sharing without parent permission.

Things got muddied up when John White warned the committee members that Louisiana may lose significant federal funding if certain data was not collected and provided to federal authorities. Schroeder explained that he had not been shown any federal or