News
A letter signed by over 100 organizations, both nationally and in 31 states, including 11 Florida groups led by The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition (FSCCC), called on Congress to rewrite the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).This letter to the House Education and Workforce Committee, these organizations strongly urged Congress to recognize that it is not the role or right of government to probe a child's most personal and sensitive attributes, as well as to protect the property interest that citizens have in their personal data.
- Do whatever is possible to decrease the amount of data collected on students, especially social-emotional learning (SEL) data. Collection of such data should be eliminated or at the very least a) not collected without informed opt-in parental consent and b) be treated as medical data.
- Treat whatever mental health, social emotional, or behavioral data collected for special-education evaluations or any other related program, such as Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), as medical data that cannot be housed in longitudinal databases.
- Use aggregate rather than individual data to the greatest extent possible.
- Obtain parental consent if data collected for one purpose is to be repurposed or shared with another federal agency.
- Eliminate the current language in FERPA allowing predictive testing.
Here is the link to the full letter. Please use it to contact your members of Congress and congressional candidates. so that we may protect the privacy and minds of our children and our freedoms as Americans. For more details and reasons why FERPA must be overhauled, please see our blog post about this letter
Despite the fiscal dangers and many upside down priorities, especially in education, Congress passed by a House vote of 256-197 and a Senate vote of 65-32, the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that the president reluctantly signed.
Both Florida senators voted YEA. Please thank the following Florida members of the U.S. House that voted NAY:
- Carlos Curbelo (R)
- Ron DeSantis (R)
- Matt Gaetz (R)
- Al Lawson (D)
- Brian Mast (R)
- BIll Posey (R)
- Darren Soto (D)
- Daniel Webster (R)
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Ted Yoho (R)