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Committee hears bill to standardize student record transfers to Oregon Department of Education
Summary
A public hearing on Senate Bill 312 focused on modernizing how school districts transfer student records to the Oregon Department of Education, with supporters citing delays, manual entry burden and privacy concerns for highly mobile students.
The Senate Committee on Education opened a public hearing March 24, 2025, on Senate Bill 312, which would direct the Oregon Department of Education to develop and implement a standardized method for transferring student information from school districts to the department. The bill declares an emergency and would take effect on passage.
Parisa Chanrami, with the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators, told the committee the bill is intended to ease transfers of electronic records while maintaining “strong safeguards when it comes to student data privacy.” She said SB 312 is a companion to House Bill 2508.
Supporters told the committee the change aims to improve student access to and continuity of educational services, particularly for students with disabilities and students who move frequently. “Across Oregon, we have over half a million students and roughly 14% are mobile. So that's about 75,000 students,” Chanrami said. She described current transfer practices as insecure and inefficient: student transfer records are often sent by unregistered U.S. mail or by fax, and district staff estimate each incoming student requires about an hour of manual demographic and enrollment entry; secondary students can take about 90 minutes or more because of detailed course-level data.
Chanrami also said districts face a high volume of data collections — more than 320 required submissions annually — and that SB 312 could help streamline administrative burden, particularly for small and rural districts. She thanked work-group participants who provided data from Oregon Education Service Districts and district chief information officers.
The committee carried the work session for SB 312 and closed the public hearing after testimony; no committee vote was held on the measure during this meeting.
The bill’s supporters urged the committee to consider both operational efficiencies and data privacy safeguards as work on the measure continues.
