Committee advances bill to bar campaigns from harvesting student data on public school property; language draws concerns about attestation and scope

The Senate Ethics Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 212, a bill intended to protect minors’ information in public schools by restricting how campaigns and political actors may gather or export student directory data.

The proposed law would bar school systems and school employees from providing student directory information to a candidate, campaign committee, political action committee or political organization. It would also make it a felony (aligned with statutory cross‑references cited in the bill) to knowingly give false information when registering students or to disclose protected student data to an unauthorized person. The bill requires that a person who, while on public school property, "apprises" one or more public‑school students of their right to register and vote or assists in registration must attest in writing that they are not acting directly or indirectly on behalf of a campaign and that they will not provide any student directory information to campaigns or political organizations. The state board of education would be required to promulgate implementing rules.

The committee’s discussion focused on the bill’s intent — preventing fraudulent or covert efforts to recruit minors or to collect their personal data for political purposes — and on practical implementation questions raised by several senators and outside commenters. Skeptical lawmakers and at least one attorney who testified expressed concern that the language as written could create a prior‑restraint or trap for well‑intentioned civic groups and elected officials who are invited on campus to talk about civics or voter registration drives. Questions included whether routine, invited civic engagement (for example, a registrar visiting a civics class, or League of Women Voters volunteers conducting voter‑registration using Secretary of State platforms) would trigger the new attestation requirement; who would collect and store attestations; and whether the provision could unintentionally require parents at a school sporting event who tell a 17‑year‑old they are eligible to register to provide an attestation.

Supporters said the bill targets fraudulent schemes in the largest school systems, where the sponsor said third parties had been reported to have obtained student data. The sponsor and others asked the committee to allow continued invited civic engagement but to close what they described as a loophole used by some actors who allegedly posed as benign groups while funneling student information to campaigns. Senators asked for and received commitments from the sponsor to work with colleagues and legal counsel on language refinement before final passage.

The committee voted to advance the bill. Members said they would work to clarify the attestation and implementation details with the Department of Education and legislative counsel to avoid unintended consequences for legitimate civic education activities.

What to watch: final bill text and implementing rules from the state board of education to see how attestations are handled, how "apprising" is defined and whether private schools are included (the sponsor said private schools were intentionally not included).