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Bill would close municipal records of minors’ contact details unless parents consent
Summary
House Bill 145 would exempt personally identifiable information for students 17 and under from disclosure in municipal records unless a parent consents; sponsors and municipal groups said the change would protect minors and align municipal records with schools, while press groups and transparency advocates opposed limiting sunshine law.
House Bill 145 would prevent municipal governments from disclosing personal information — such as addresses, phone numbers and email addresses — for children 17 and younger without parental permission, Representative Bill Faulkner told the Committee on Legislative Review.
"Right now if your child participates in a municipality activity . . . their information can be sunshine and their information given out and there's nothing that the city can do to stop it," Representative Bill Faulkner said. The sponsor said municipalities sometimes must disclose rosters for youth sports leagues, camps and other programs, and the bill would allow parents to block their child’s personal information from public release.
Supporters said the measure would align municipal record-retention and open-record policies with protections already in place for school records and would address safety and commercial-solicitation concerns. Richard Sheets, executive director of the Missouri Municipal League, said parents and municipalities had contacted the League with examples of youth being solicited after programs, and ‘‘there's also a public safety aspect. Knowing where the children live could really be a safety concern for the minor.’’
Pat Kelly of the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis and others said the bill would not prevent parents from accessing information about their own children and noted the measure previously passed the House before being tied into a larger bill and vetoed last session.
Opponents said the bill would erode transparency. Mike Jenner, a retired newspaper editor representing the Missouri Press Association, said the proposal "erodes Missouri sunshine law by making public information secret" and warned that citizens have a right to know how state and local resources are used. Another witness, Lisa Pinette of Armervine, opposed the measure on similar transparency grounds.
Doug Cruz of the Missouri Press Association noted the legislation could include safeguards: he said records can still be requested by the Division of Labor Standards for enforcing child-labor laws, meaning the exemption would not be absolute for all purposes.
The public hearing closed after testimony for and against the bill; the transcript records the hearing but does not record a committee vote or further action.
