Who can access K-12 students’ personal data? No one really knows
By Mary C. Tillotson | Watchdog.org
Students at many public schools are having personal data collected, stored and distributed to third parties without their parents’ knowledge.
“I had a conversation with my high school assistant principal and asked him how much data was being collected. He chuckled and slapped his knee and he said, ‘It’s a lot. It’s getting to be more and more,’” said Dawn Sweeney, a Pennsylvania mother.
DATA PRIVACY: Parents ought to be informed and give consent before a school allows third parties access to a student’s sensitive private data, a new organization says. The federal law protecting privacy was crafted in the 1970s.
Sweeney has two children in public schools and she homeschools her younger three. She had planned to enroll them in public schools when they reached seventh grade, as she did with her two oldest, but because of the data collection, she’s reconsidering.
“Nobody can say exactly what is being collected, but it’s a lot, and it concerns me that every time my kids are on the computer, their person is connected to data,” Sweeney said. “You don’t need parent permission for that. However, you do need parent permission to hang artwork in the hallway.”
That data collection makes plenty of parents nervous and is a growing reason more parents homeschool their children, said Will Estrada, staff attorney and director of federal relations for Home School Legal Defense Association.
“The concern for parents is, good grief, this record is going to follow my kid through higher education. If they punched another kid in second grade or had emotional problems in sixth grade, that’s going to follow them,” Estrada said. “You can’t be a child and grow and learn.”
Other concerns include identity theft, data security, a child’s physical safety if a sex offender gains access to the data and the government or big businesses having access to the data.
Emmett McGroarty, executive director of the Preserve Innocence Project at the American Principles Project, said if government is able to collect information in an unfettered manner on individuals, it will change their relationship.
“If I have a wealth of private information on you, on what you buy, what you read, what you watch on TV, your voting records, and how much you make…If you’re walking Who can access K-12 students' personal data? No one really knows « Watchdog.org: