Senate Education sent two bills to the 41st day and one to the floor at Tuesday’s (2/3) meeting.
By a single vote, committee members killed Senate Bill 117. The bill, which would have amended a state law protecting the privacy of students and passed through the legislature, would have added four new criteria to a list of information that could not be reviewed by school districts and expand other areas of student information protection. ASBSD was monitoring the bill.
“I think this (proposed bill) is something we need to work on,” Sen. Deb Soholt, the committee chair, said. “I’m not certain of the consequences.”
Sen. Phil Jensen, the bill’s main sponsor, testified the bill allowed parents to opt-out of survey information collection and claimed even with strong data storage systems no information online is “completely secure.”
SB 117 also added a provision that a violation of the bill would be “guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor,” which Sen. Jensen said strengthened the legislation.
“I think this (bill) needs to be fleshed out a little bit more,” Sen. Bruce Rampelberg said.
Committee members voted 6-1 to kill Senate Bill 104, which would have allowed parents to opt their children out of certain surveys given by a school district.
Secretary of Education Melody Schopp, who testified in favor of the bill on behalf of the Department of Education, said the bill outlined “the process for parental consent.”
Committee members felt the law passed last year in the form of Senate Bill 63, which was also referenced in discussion of Senate Bill 117, was sufficient enough. ASBSD was monitoring the bill.
House Bill 1043, which called for the repeal of certain outdated and obsolete provisions from DOE, including TCAP (Teacher Compensation Assistance Program), passed by a 5-2 committee vote.
HB 1043 now heads to the Senate floor for review. ASBSD is monitoring the bill.