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Rockport committee backs Panorama social-emotional screener; parents must opt in
Summary
The school committee approved adopting Panorama as the district's social-emotional screener starting this fall on a three-year contract; the screening will require active parental consent, will be administered fall and spring, and student-level access will be limited to appropriate staff under a data-privacy agreement referencing FERPA.
The Rockport School Committee on April 15 approved plans to implement the Panorama social-emotional screener districtwide beginning this fall under a three-year contract.
Jody told the committee the district selected Panorama after demos and review; she said the product allows district staff to create and edit question banks and to run surveys for students, staff and families. "It is not anonymous," Jody said, explaining that student-level identifiers are needed so counselors and support staff can follow up when individual students screen as needing additional supports.
Committee members discussed safeguards: Jody said the vendor has signed a data-privacy agreement and the product includes FERPA-related protections. Parents must provide active consent for their child to participate; if a student is not opted in, staff will make arrangements to avoid making that exclusion obvious to peers. The committee also asked for post-administration updates so members can see aggregate results and early evidence of whether the screener helps target interventions.
The committee was told that Panorama will be administered in fall and spring and that the district can create anonymous overviews for reporting while keeping individual-level data locked to authorized staff. The committee did not vote to share student-level results with parents routinely; staff said individualized results would be discussed in conferences or IEP/IST meetings when a concern arose.
