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LB428 - Change provisions relating to school policies on the involvement of parents, guardians, and educational decisionmakers in schools

The Stated Intent: LB428 ensures parents are notified of any surveys regarding sensitive and personal information administered to students, the purpose of the collected data, the practices of how such data is to be stored or shared, and allows parents to exempt their child from participating in them. 

So what is LB428 all about?

LB428 would requires school districts notify parents, guardians, and educational decisionmakers about an anonymous survey requesting that students provide sexual information, mental health information, medical information, information on health-risk behaviors, religious information, information of political affiliation, or any other information that the school board deems to be sensitive in nature. The school district would need to make this notification 30 day prior to the survey and the notification must include:

• the nature and types of questions included in the survey,
• the purposes and age-appropriateness of the survey,
• how information collected by the survey will be used,
• who will have access to such information,
• the steps that will be taken to protect student privacy, and
• whether and how any findings or results of such survey will be disclosed

The parents, guardians, and educational decisionmakers have the right to request a copy of the survey be sent to them, review the questionnaire or survey in person, and exempt their child from participating in the survey.

Finally; unless required by law, school personnel administering any such survey shall not disclose personally identifiable information of a child and no survey requesting sexual information of a student shall be administered to any student in kindergarten through grade six.

Have you heard of PPRA?

If you follow NFFV, then you know we recently sent a Minuteman alert that briefly discussed surveys, LB31 - Student Surveillance, Monitoring, & Tracking Tech by Schools. We referenced Dr. Sue Greenwald's Substack article "The Half Million Dollar Health Survey" that discussed the new $560K federal grant the Nebraska State Board of Education accepted this past fall for health surveys on students. In her article, Dr. Greenwald mentioned the PPRA. So what is PPRA and why does it matter for LB428?

PPRA - Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment sometimes referred to as the Hatch Amendment was signed into Federal law 1978. The law was intended to protect the rights of pupils and the parents of pupils in programs receiving federal funds. PPRA ensures that parents have the right to inspect any survey, analysis, or evaluation that concerns one or more of the following eight protected areas:

1. political affiliations or beliefs of the student or student's parent
2. mental or psychological problems of the student or student's family
3. sex behavior or attitude
4. Illegal, anti-social self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior
5. critical appraisals of others with whom respondents have close family relationships
6. legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as with lawyers, doctors, or ministers
7. religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or student's parent; or
8. income, other than as required by law to determine program eligibility or for receiving financial assistance under such a program.

Schools must provide notice to parents before administering a survey that covers any of these protected areas. You can learn more about PPRA from the U.S. Department of Ed - Protecting Students Privacy and watching their video.

"OPT IN" or "OPT OUT"

The question to parents is, how many notices have you received from your child's school regarding an upcoming survey? Did the notice include any information about "opting in" or "opting out" of the survey? There are some parents who say they have never received such notice. The reality may be that the notice is buried in other communication that often get ignored. Schools can get away with doing this when they take the "opt out" approach to surveys. Therefore; if a parent doesn't take the action of excusing their child from the survey, they are automatically required to take it. They are basically betting on the parents being too busy to go through all the details or just unaware they can opt their child out of the survey.

So what does PPRA actually require? Do parents have to "opt in" or "opt out"? According to Student Privacy Compass - FAQs: The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment",

"Schools must get parental consent when 1) a required survey, analysis, or examination is 2) funded in whole or in part by the US Department of Education and 3) is being conducted to find out any of the following:"

"The following" is the eight protected areas previously listed above. Note the phrase "schools must get parental consent" means parents must "opt in". The article goes on to say,

"If student participation isn’t required, then notice and opportunity to opt-out would be sufficient. Parental consent is not required for surveys that don’t cover the above categories, but parents generally may opt-out, as shown in the below chart."

The first sentence of the last quote was highlight for the purpose of this alert. It appears to be the way schools can use the opt-out method. The question is, do the students know when a survey is "required" or not? Do you?

The money

Student data has become big business and big money. However the number of entities are becoming fewer and fewer as discussed in The Mark - This Private Equity Firm Is Amassing Companies That Collect Data on America's Children. Here's how the article starts;

"Over the past six years, a little-known private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, has built an educational software empire that wields unseen influence over the educational journeys of tens of millions of children."

Vista Equity has controlling ownership stakes in "some of the leading names in educational technology, including EAB, which sells a suite of college counseling and recruitment products, and PowerSchool, which dominates the market for K-12 data warehousing and analytics". PowerSchool alone has data on more than 45M children which includes 75% of North American K-12 kids.

What does that mean for them in revenue? The Miami-Dade County Public Schools recent PowerSchool contracts have exceeded $2.5M. That's just one district and they have 75% of North American K-12 kids!

“It’s hard for me to understand how PowerSchool would not be paying for the privilege” of extracting so much student data, said Alex Bowers, a professor of educational leadership at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “You don’t pay the oil company to come pump oil off your land; it’s the other way around"

Curious what data they're collecting?

"We found that the companies, collectively, gather everything from basic demographic information—entered automatically when a student enrolls in school—to data about students’ citizenship status, religious affiliation, school disciplinary records, medical diagnoses, what speed they read and type at, the full text of answers they give on tests, the pictures they draw for assignments, whether they live in a two-parent household, whether they’ve used drugs, been the victim of a crime, or expressed interest in LGBTQ+ groups, among hundreds of other data points. Each Vista-owned company doesn’t necessarily hold all the data points listed here."

Does any of this sound concerning?

Let YOUR senator(s) know:

• PPRA protections are not enough for Nebraska parents. We need state legislation to strengthen protections for student privacy.

• Parents need "opt in" requirements to allow their child to participate in school surveys. Parents and students need to receive clear communication when surveys are not mandatory.

• Survey providers should clearly state what data is being gathered and what it is being used for. If data is sold, students should be compensated for their portion of the data.

Your voice is powerful, make it heard on LB428. The committee hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, February 4, 2025. NFFV recommends you "Support" this bill.

How to be heard? Here are three ways:

• Most Effective: Testify in person. Going to the Committee hearing and sharing YOUR story with committee member Senators is very impactful. For first time in person testifier here are some helpful hints. 
• Effective: Submit written testimony. If you can't be there in person then submit written testimony. Not sure how to do that, click here. Note: The deadline to submit and verify a comment for the hearing record for LB428 is Tuesday, February 4, 2025 at 8:00 AM Central Time.
• Least Effective: Email your position letter to the Committee Senators and CC your own Senator. For a listing of the Education Committee Senators click here. Note: emails should be sent by noon, the business day before the committee hearing. It's not likely these emails will be included in official hearing minutes, however, there is a better chance Committee Senators will see your comments. You can request they be added to meeting minutes in your email to Committee Senators.

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