Introduced

SB 815 - This act prohibits the State Board of Education and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from mandating the curriculum, textbooks, or other instructional materials used in the public schools. This prohibition will not apply to any schools or programs administered by the State Board, the Department, or any district classified as unaccredited. This section is identical to HB 1158 (2014). (Section 160.516)

This act requires the State Board of Education to adopt a rule relating to student data accessibility, transparency, and accountability. The rule must include several requirements for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The Department must create and make publicly available a data inventory and index of data elements with definitions of individual student data fields in the student data system, as described in the act. The Department must develop policies to comply with all relevant state and federal laws, including the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The policies must address access to personally identifiable student data in the statewide longitudinal data system. The Department must develop criteria for the approval of research and data requests from state and local agencies, researchers working on behalf of the Department, and the public.

The Department must not, unless otherwise authorized, transfer personally identifiable student data. The Department must develop a detailed data security plan, as described in the act, and ensure compliance with FERPA. The Department must ensure that any contracts that govern databases, assessments, or instructional supports that include student or redacted data and are outsourced to private vendors include provisions that safeguard privacy and security and include penalties for non-compliance.

The Department must report to the Governor, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Joint Committee on Education of any new student data proposed for inclusion in the state student data system and any changes to existing data collections required for any reason.

The Department is prohibited from collecting, and school districts are prohibited from reporting the following individual student data: juvenile court delinquency records, criminal records, student biometric information, student political affiliation, and student religion. (Section 161.096)

MICHAEL RUFF


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