Minn. education committee advances bill to let school HRs share personnel files after interview; privacy group urges 'no'

The Minnesota House Education Policy Committee on March 11 voted to refer House File 914 to the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee after a presentation from Rep. Quam and public testimony opposed by Education Minnesota.

Rep. Quam, who authored the bill, told the committee the measure is a response to a recent Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that exposed gaps in how schools discover previous allegations against prospective hires. "This would say after you've decided to interview a person, your HR department can talk to the HR department that the person had worked at or was working at and share that file and the person would be notified," Quam said, adding that the proposal is intended to protect students from "bad actors who have jumped multiple schools."

The bill would, as presented, permit one school HR office to share a departing employee's personnel file with another school’s HR…