Parents: Who is (mis)Labeling Your Children?
Labels are good on soup cans, on prescription bottles, but on children? …not so much.
Here’s a newsflash for the data driven educrats: Children change, develop at different rates, aren’t easily or accurately quantified. Data can bebiased and data can be wrong.
Take, for example, a 7 year old child who was labeled as profoundly developmentally disabled. One specialist told the parent that his child would likely need assistance getting on and off a school bus, and would be in a “classroom of her peers, would not play sports, and likely not attend college.” Turns out, the specialist, who prepared this report for a school disability meeting, was wrong. The specialist couldn’t accurately predict this child’s future, which in itself is great news. (The little girl, now 10 years old, plays soccer and is hoping to be a pro-athlete or scientist when she grows up.) The bad news: the inaccurate report remains in her education record, and has been digitally shared outside of the school. The report was uploaded to the state’s education data records system, SLDS, which collects, stores records on every child beginning in preschool. (For more on this longitudinal data system in every state, see here.) Once data is entered into the state’s SLDS data system, a parent doesn’t know who outside the school has had access to their child’s records, because the information in a child’s education record and SLDS can be shared without parental consent, to anyone the school or state authorizes (vendors, researchers, government agencies like Dept. of Labor, Dept. of Corrections, etc.) Parents often do not know that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not apply to schools and that FERPA privacy law was relaxed, (despite many protests) to allow sharing of a child’s personal information, no parental consent required.
Take, for example, a 7 year old child who was labeled as profoundly developmentally disabled. One specialist told the parent that his child would likely need assistance getting on and off a school bus, and would be in a “classroom of her peers, would not play sports, and likely not attend college.” Turns out, the specialist, who prepared this report for a school disability meeting, was wrong. The specialist couldn’t accurately predict this child’s future, which in itself is great news. (The little girl, now 10 years old, plays soccer and is hoping to be a pro-athlete or scientist when she grows up.) The bad news: the inaccurate report remains in her education record, and has been digitally shared outside of the school. The report was uploaded to the state’s education data records system, SLDS, which collects, stores records on every child beginning in preschool. (For more on this longitudinal data system in every state, see here.) Once data is entered into the state’s SLDS data system, a parent doesn’t know who outside the school has had access to their child’s records, because the information in a child’s education record and SLDS can be shared without parental consent, to anyone the school or state authorizes (vendors, researchers, government agencies like Dept. of Labor, Dept. of Corrections, etc.) Parents often do not know that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not apply to schools and that FERPA privacy law was relaxed, (despite many protests) to allow sharing of a child’s personal information, no parental consent required.
Many parents do not know that the information in their child’s education record, (photos, even medical information, disability status, IEPs, mental health, discipline records, etc.) can be shared outside of school.Parents: Who is (mis)Labeling Your Children? – Missouri Education Watchdog:
