It almost seems as if today’s definition of school data privacy is that school records are kept private from the parents. A Nevada father asked to see his four children’s school records and was told the fee would be $10,000!

In today’s computer-driven classrooms, an enormous amount of data can potentially be collected and stored indefinitely on computers. Through children’s responses on open-ended questions, a complete personality profile could potentially be compiled. We might trustingly hope that this would never happen, but just how do parents find out what information is being collected? Read the article.

The data tech company inBloom was started with seed money from the Gates Foundation. The company’s plan was to collect student data from various sources, store them in the “cloud” and allow the data to be accessed for various educational purposes. Faced with parent concerns and with recent data protection legislation from the New York […]

In December 2013, a KUOW story revealed that the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction had signed an agreement to share student data with the Seattle Times and the Associated Press–without notification to parents or students. Not even Seattle Public Schools officials knew about this agreement. Read more…

FERPA is the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. On 12/02/2011, this administration published the final report on the changes it made to the Act. Educational and governmental agencies may now authorize more people and agencies to handle private student information, and those agencies, in turn, may authorize others to handle the information. The agencies […]

A Batavia High School teacher, John Dryden, was disciplined for explaining to his high school students that they had Constitutional rights protecting them from answering personal questions on a survey the school was conducting. The survey was not anonymous. Current and past students of Mr. Dryden rallied around him in support. A report of disciplinary […]

Maryland 2nd-grader suspended for chewing food into gun shape School officials have completely lost all common sense! They tolerate the most vile language in their hallways, they accept the wearing of completely inappropriate clothing,  they accept rude behavior, BUT there is a no-tolerance policy toward……..dare I print the word?……..g-u-n-s.  We are not even talking about […]

Imagine a future world in which every aspect of each citizen is compiled in a data base. Oh, wait, it’s already happening….starting with the early learning data base that is being implemented. Watch this video . Although it mentions Oklahoma, it applies to us in Washington as well.

Have you been hearing about the “Common Core State Standards”? Here is a video which explains the frightening concept and which explains that this is just one component of a larger agenda. The speaker, Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project, begins the explanation with the Race to the Top program, but the roots of transformation of education began decades ago. A significant year was 1965 when federal moneys were first given to states bringing federal mandates to local districts, and another critical year was 1994 when Goals 2000 and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act were passed. President Obama’s Race to the Top program is the most recent step in the destruction of American education. Local control has been systematically destroyed. Please watch all five parts of this video.

Schools should be places of learning –of passing down knowledge and culture from one generation to the next. They shouldn’t be places of control, monitoring, and violations of privacy. One student’s protest against this violation has made it to the courts.

A change in privacy laws included in the Stimulus bill of 2009 will allow your child’s private information to be shared by agencies and individuals. Watch the video.