Monday! Let Senator Murray know you value Student Data Privacy

The Senate HELP (Health Education Labor and Pensions committee) is negotiating over the re-authorization of the Education Sciences Reform Act.  We were told that there are Democrats on the committee who are pushing for relaxing limits on access to personal student data, and are saying that researchers should be able to obtain open-ended access to complete student data sets– and that they shouldn’t have to even specify which specific student level data they want for what purposes.

Please call Senator Patty Murray, who is a senior member of the HELP committee, and let her know strong controls and oversight of student data are important to you.

 It is especially important that parents/advocates who live in the states represented by Dems below call on Monday.

 Senator Murray's D.C. office:  (toll-free) 866-481-9186

Here's a sample of what to say:
(identify yourself as a constituent and a public school parent/community member)

 I'm calling about the Education Sciences Reform Act that the HELP committee is considering.

 I believe that student data used by researchers should be de-identified and anonymized to the extent possible. In NO case should any researcher obtain open-ended access to personally identifiable student data without parental consent. There must be strict oversight and protocols about the use of all student data.

 The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has said that Fair Information Practices require that only personal information that is directly relevant and necessary for the specified purpose should be collected and/or shared.

 I am also concerned because there have been more than 700 reported breaches of personal data from educational institutions since 2005 according to http://www.privacyrights.org/data-breach .

 I urge Senator Murray to fight to protect student data privacy.

Senate HELP Committee

Republicans by Rank
Lamar Alexander (TN)
Michael B. Enzi (WY)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
Rand Paul (KY)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Mark Kirk (IL)
Tim Scott (SC)
Fair Information Practices. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011601.pdf
PURPOSE SPECIFICATION—
specifically articulating the authority that permits the
collection of personally identifiable information and specifically articulating the purpose or
purposes for which the personally identifiable information is intended to be used
DATA MINIMIZATION AND RETENTION—
only collecting personally identifiable
information that is directly relevant and necessary to accomplish the specified purpose(s).
Only retaining personally identifiable information for as long as is necessary to fulfill the
specified purpose(s)
USE LIMITATION—
using personally identifiable information solely for the purpose(s)
specified in the public notice. Sharing information should be for a purpose compatible with
the purpose for which the information was collected
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