Pursuant to our publication of Department of Education (DOE) emails which revealed plans for DOE to provide sensitive personal student and teacher information to a computer data bank controlled by a company affiliated with News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one parent has decided to take action.
The parent, who shall remain nameless here, sent an email to State Superintendent of Education John White directing that no information on his children be released by DOE under provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Taking our cue from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which drafts model legislation for introduction by state lawmakers, we include his email to White here as a “model letter” for the purpose of prohibiting DOE from providing data to outside vendors.
To send your own message, here is John White’s email address:
john.white@la.gov
My name is (PARENT’S NAME) and I am a parent of children in Louisiana public schools. This is to formally inform you that you do not have my permission to share my children’s personally identifiable student information with any external agency, researcher, non-profit group, vendor or government or quasi-government agency under any circumstances (specifically, name, DOB, SSN). They are public students in the (parish/city/parochial) school system and you have not asked my permission to share their information as required by law. I am purposefully informing you that you do not have permission to share their information unless I provide appropriate parental guidance. Their/his/her name(s) is/are (STUDENT’S OR STUDENTS’ NAME[S]). If you already have, I would like you to promptly request that his/her/their information be expunged from any data set you have already shared.
Mr. White, on the basis of your e-mails it appears you are planning on sharing this data and I will hold you personally responsible for any subsequent violations. I will be recommending that other parents likewise notify you if they do not wish their information to be shared with corporations/vendors whom you have agreed to not hold liable for any security breaches or unauthorized releases (which I don’t believe you have a legal right or authority to do). Moreover, any such release of personally identifiable information without each parent’s express permission will be a direct violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and a willfully unnecessary one since you have non-personally identifiable student identifiers and have taken great pains to claim FERPA exclusions for all other releases of de-identified student data to the media, researchers, and the general public.
Please note the section in the last paragraph below. Schools may disclose, without consent, directory information. But you must notify us when doing so. You, however, do not have my consent and you are not a school. You have my absolute, unequivocal, official refusal on record.
You also do not have a legal right to require social security numbers from any student in Louisiana. I will be recommending parents and school districts to promptly stop providing them as you seem unwilling to guard this information as required by law.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
(PARENT’S NAME)
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.
FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are “eligible students.”
• Parents or eligible students have the right to inspect and review the student’s education records maintained by the school. Schools are not required to provide copies of records unless, for reasons such as great distance, it is impossible for parents or eligible students to review the records. Schools may charge a fee for copies.
• Parents or eligible students have the right to request that a school correct records which they believe to be inaccurate or misleading. If the school decides not to amend the record, the parent or eligible student then has the right to a formal hearing. After the hearing, if the school still decides not to amend the record, the parent or eligible student has the right to place a statement with the record setting forth his or her view about the contested information.
• Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student’s education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):
o School officials with legitimate educational interest;
o Other schools to which a student is transferring;
o Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
o Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
o Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
o Accrediting organizations;
o To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
o Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
o State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law.
Schools may disclose, without consent, “directory” information such as a student’s name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. Schools must notify parents and eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA. The actual means of notification (special letter, inclusion in a PTA bulletin, student handbook, or newspaper article) is left to the discretion of each school.
Louisiana Voice 
Thank you Tom. I will copy and send an email to him in the a.m. Appreciate your blog and all of your hard work.
Tom, Should parents of catholic school children send this letter also? Thanks
Couldn’t hurt.
DOE did not collect most non-public info directly. However when I left they were getting and loading files from testing companies (like GED, ACT) colleges enrollment info, etc and loading onto database. If your child has ever enrolled in any public school they could send historical data. Make sure you include school year set. when they were enrolled in public. For example: this year is 2012-2013.
Great idea….but why did the parent give the child’s SSN in the first paragraph? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of trying to keep the information private?
I went back and re-read the parent’s letter. He was not providing the social security numbers, but rather was including social security numbers as among specific data on his children that was not to be given out by DOE.
Perhaps SSN needed in the event of similar names?
Never send an SSN by text or Email.
Christa – as you may remember, we used to put SS numbers on IEPs and were told to stop approximately 8 years ago. When the on-line state IEP program was instituted, we initially had to remember to include the extra step that deleted the SS that would have automatically posted from previous IEPs. I don’t know if that has been updated. Requiring the SS was just a gaff that was brought to the attention of LDE probably by a parent.
Another example of the many “rules and regulations” from LDE (and for that matter the legislature) that are illegal or unconstitutional but stick unless challenged.
This new contract between LDE and data collection companies that has remained under the radar is a good example. Our attention was raised by NYC Parents Across America members (who are quite familiar with John White who spent time there closing schools and “transforming” them to charters). It appears that U.S.Ed is moving toward changing FERPA policy to accommodate these data collecting activities. Stay tuned.
Let me also add, there is no reason to require a child’s SS #. Again, as you know, a child’s living conditions (homeless), citizenship status, socio-economic status etc are all considered private and cannot be questioned by public school personnel. That is a safeguard against discrimination and evidence that public schools are NOT selective (like many charters) and must provide services for every child. The only record of socio-economic status is provided voluntarily by parents in order to receive free and reduced lunch status. I am not sure if those applications require a copy of IRS return which would include SS# or not. I am thinking not because I have personally been suspect in the past of a couple situations where it was quite obvious a parent’s claim was bogus. Of course there are ways to manipulate or report income in cases of divorce etc.
This brings up a problem with teacher evaluations based on student test scores and, of course school performance scores. One factor in the VAM metric is free/reduced lunch status. Mis-reporting of that status either up or down will skew a teacher’s and a school’s performance. Some parents don’t want their status revealed and don’t apply, others may misrepresent their status, and I was told by a teacher friend in Baton Rouge that every single child in her high school was reported as Free/reduced lunch. She found this out in conversation with a parent.
At the recent Superintendents’ Advisory Council meeting White offered his plan for a new policy in that regard that he promoted as “saving hours of paperwork” for school administration. The proposal “provides LEAs flexibility of opting into USDA school breakfast and lunch program that will relieve LEAs of the burden of collecting applications and allow all students to be served free meals.” According to White, “Current system results in year-to-year variation in federal reimbursement and loss of hours of focus on student learning.” He says his objective is to “Study the possibility of establishing alternate At-risk data criteria to allow LEAs the flexibility to participate in various USDA school lunch options.” Sounds good? Coming from the devious mind of White – not so much. Anybody have any ideas about how that will work in White’s favor? I know it will affect SPS and VAM.
Hard to say but it could seriously impact school funding and e-rate funding if not done right. At risk is an extra 1k per school. Erate can be millions annually per district for technology purchases. It masks the actual achievement differences between at risk, reduced and paid. Would possibly result in seeming to close achievement gap dramatically by including all paid an reduced in with free and defining entire population as at-risk.
There you go. The e-rate question was brought up at the Superintendents’ Advisory Council meeting last week when White presented his cockeymamie idea. I believe it was Supt. Voitier from St. Bernard (who is one of the few superintendents’ who asks questions. White could not answer her concerns and deferred to one of his “people.” His “people” said they had actually questioned that themselves and were “looking into it.” Right. I am extremely disturbed at the superintendents sitting quietly by and falling for this stuff. I wanted to ask how many realized they were beind HAD but I tried to remain “professional.”
Only the information in bold print is personal.
That particular sentence should be written just as it is.
NO actual SSN should be included.
With name and school district they can identify 90% of students. If you have a common last name, school names and grade levels should be sent as well.
This is a dreadful matter that the Department of Education (DOE) should address immediately! Wait! What am I saying? This is a case of the medication turning on the patient. We must immediately cease the current DOE supposed treatment of the state’s education woes. But how? Based on the father’s excellent letter you’ve published above, and the fact that the Executive and Legislative branches of government in Louisiana have turned on the very citizens that they were elected to serve, we have only the Judicial Branch to turn to now. So, the sooner a lawsuit is brought AGAIN against White and the DOE, the sooner we can stop having to suffer from the wrong “cure” we are being given. Sooner or later a Judge in Louisiana is going to get sick of the repeated flaunting of the law by jindal, White, Rainwater, et al and lock one of them up to show that he/she is serious about law enforcement. I pray that day comes sooner than later.
Would love to post this to my Facebook for the people I know to read and follow through. But I don’t see where I can do that. Jamie
Jamie – copy and paste the URL on your Facebook page. Kenneth has provided it below.
Another great job, Tom, keep it up, I think the La. Legis will do nothing, except promote this idiocy of selling out our public education. ron
This makes me ill. When will these people ever stop? I will forward this to my daughter so my grandkids will be protected. Thanks Tom.
Reblogged this on Crazycrawfish's Blog and commented:
Start sending those letters.
RePosted this on Diana Ravitch’s blog.
[…] This father sent an email to the State Department of Education directing them not to release his child’s data to inBloom. He cited FERPA, the law intended to protect the privacy of student data. He made clear that he is prepared to take legal action to protect his children. […]
[…] via Father sends email prohibiting DOE’s release of children’s personal data; shows how others can p…. […]
[…] A father in Louisiana emailed this letter to the State Dept. of Ed. demanding his child’s data not be included in the inBloom project; […]
I started a campaign to address this issue if anyone is interested in participating?
My Intro:
My Campaign
My petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-sharing-our-student-data/
Tom,
You think you could give me a little boost? 🙂
[…] Mine was the first letter to get sent, so it was not a form letter; however Tom Aswell at the Louisiana Voice republished it after redacting my personal info so other parents could likewise opt their children out of any data sharing using my letter as a […]