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House overwhelmingly approves Student Privacy Act after amendments and debate
Summary
The House passed third-substitute HB68 on March 6, 2015 by voice vote announced as 71-0. Sponsors said the bill creates allowable and optional student-data categories, requires parental authorization for certain sensitive data, limits expungement for disciplinary records, and delays implementation to give the State Board time for rulemaking.
The Utah House approved the third substitute of House Bill 68, the Student Privacy Act, on March 6, 2015, by a vote announced as 71-0. Sponsors and supporters described the bill as a collaborative product of legislators, local districts, district attorneys and education stakeholders intended to clarify what student information schools may collect and how it may be used and shared.
Floor presenters said the bill creates three broad buckets of student information—baseline allowable data, a narrower set of optional data that requires additional authorization, and prohibitions on sharing identifiable data without contracts that limit use. Sponsor Representative Anderegg told colleagues the substitute addressed legal concerns raised in earlier drafts and had incorporated the intent of federal protections under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) while adding statutory direction about which data may be collected and when.
Members pressed sponsors on several concerns. Representative Briscoe queried whether Individualized Education Program (IEP) records and other special-education documentation were protected; sponsors pointed to specific lines in the substitute that allow districts to identify special-needs information as required by state and federal law and to meet parents for consent. Representative Christiansen and others raised detailed privacy questions about aggregate reporting, third-party vendors and data mining; sponsors said contracts with third-party vendors would prohibit data mining and resale and that deidentified aggregate information could still be shared for assessment or program evaluation.
Sponsors also said the statute delays implementation until the 2016-17 school year to allow the Utah State Office of Education time to adopt rules and guidance. After floor discussion and adoption of amendment number 1, the House approved the third substitute and transmitted it to the Senate.
