THIS WEEK, the White Bear Lake School Board and Superintendent will be voting to revise their School Board Policy Manual at their regular School Board Meeting. We encourage parents and citizens to attend and strongly oppose this sharing of private data.
What’s at stake? Evidently the White Bear Lake School District wants to share student and family data with our federal government. The manual describes the “Authorized representative” as the entity who controls the dissemination of data. Under Policy Manual section 515, Protection and Privacy of Pupil Records, the Definitions section states, “Authorized representative” means any entity or individual designated by the school district, state, or an agency headed by an official of the Comptroller of the United States, the Attorney General of the United States, the Secretary of the US Department of Education, or state and local educational authorities to conduct with respect to federal or state supported education programs, any audit or evaluation or any compliance or enforcement activity in connection with federal legal requirements that relate to these programs.”
“ANY entity or individual designated by the school district” is a wide open proposition in sharing data to the highest bidder. Further bewilderment occurs when reading, “any audit or evaluation or any compliance or enforcement activity in conjunction with federal legal requirements” which rings clear as federal control, not Minnesota Independent School District LOCAL CONTROL.
Be sure to check out the next section on this page… Section B. Biometric Record. “Biometrics” is not a revision/addition and evidently has been part of the record.
Many Americans are concerned about the ever growing trend of data collection – and now data collection in our schools. We also wonder why our childrens’ and families’ data must be shared with our federal government and “any entity approved by the school”? Is the School Board and Superintendent of White Bear Lake protecting our children? We’d like to know their answers.
This is the Protection and Privacy of Pupil Records (515) portion of White Bear Lake’s manual. What’s in YOUR school district’s policy manual?
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