Oh, All the Places Your Data Will Go!  NFL Funding and USDA Lunches

By Anne Taylor

The federally funded school lunch program and the National Football League (NFL) are in a league of their own to provide your school with…a new playground!  But at what cost?

Earlier I wrote a piece “School Playgrounds for Hire:  What Happened to Free Play at School and Is Adult-Directed Recess Stifling Childhood Creativity?” on the very subject of the lack of recess in our schools and how third party companies are up for hire on directing adult driven play.

About a year ago, a parent brought to my attention a program called “Fuel Up To Play 60.”  I was initially intrigued that the National Football League was involved in offering playground equipment to help schools in need.  But what I later found out from this parent, sadly turned from hopeful to the infringement on parental rights and yet another survey taken in school and on regular classroom time.

Here’s what I learned about how Fuel Up To Play 60 and what the U.S. Federally Funded Food Program is really after.  It’s obvious:  Your child’s data.

The starting line-up begins through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act which was championed by First Lady Michelle Obama and signed by President Obama.  Our U.S. Department of Agriculture made the first major changes in school meals in 15 years, with the hope of raising a “healthier generation of children” according to the Fuel Up to Play 60 website.

But do these reforms reflect what’s right for children’s health in a way that’s achievable in schools across the nation as Fuel Up to Play 60 claims?

Many schools here and across the U.S. received scathing responses on the First Lady’s healthy eating agenda after kids literally started dumping their food in school lunch cafeterias, even posting on social media – so much so that some poked fun at starting composting a class with all the large quantities of uneaten food.  And by the way, that was your federal dollars that ended up in the trash bin in the name of healthy eating!

I have to say, it was the federal food program that received the highest number of reads, comments and shares among Common Core groups!

That being said, in our state of Minnesota, several districts discontinued the federal food program after seeing their money go to the dumpster.  Wayzata and Prior Lake schools found success in their opt-out while boosting athlete’s calories of up to 1000 along with second and third helpings.  Sadly, this doesn’t help other districts who rely on federal food funding as some districts, such as St. Paul, have up to 80% of its students on free and reduced meals according to a recent news update earlier this month.

If food is so important, why is it that we are a society so reliant upon the need for federal funding that literally ends up in the trash?  Lunch happens to be the MOST important aspect of a child’s day in school.  For some, this may be the ONLY meal they get.  What makes this NLF program so intriguing is that the program punts the ploy to create healthy standards, while dangling a carrot for school playgrounds for districts in need (no pun intended).

From approximately 2010-2014 schools in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Anoka, Hopkins and Burnsville including Immaculate Conception, St. John and St. Paul Lutheran schools received NFL playground awards.   By 2015 Osseo, Robbinsdale, Rochester and Rosemount all took a considerable amount of funding for its playground equipment.  On the receiving end, if your school was listed as a participating recipient, your school would have received approximately $4,000 towards new playground equipment in exchange for your child’s information PLUS many, many stipulations thwarted by Fuel Up to Play 60. 

Read the playbook “rules” on personally identifiable information on coaches and referees (ie: teachers or program advisors) to view a list of stipulations on information gathered about your child and how Fuel Up to Play 60 WILL SHARE personally identifiable information including information labeled “Full Wellness Investigation” with the intent of highlighting nutrition services, physical education, as well as family and community information found in your school.

Parents:  If your school made the list, did you know about the survey conducted in school by Fuel Up to Play 60?  Did you know that Fuel Up to Play 60 “…may also keep records of non-personally identifiable or aggregate data, such as the number of hits a Web page receives, or the IP address of the computers accessing the site. We do not link this data with any Personally Identifiable Information (as defined below). Third parties that help us administer the website may have confidential access to this aggregate data.” Read Fuel Up to Play 60 full privacy policy disclosure here.

As one parent pointed out, “Their privacy policy states… “We do not share personally identifiable information with third parties except on a confidential and secure basis to those parties that help us administer our website or related activities.” You have to assume that “related activities” covers them in sharing the data with any of the hundreds of sub groups.”

After thorough research, that parent also noted “if you scroll through the site you find an endless list of foundations and agencies that are part of the program.  Each section of the program comes from a different foundation or group, and if you look a few of those, they are made up of another list of groups.  If you look at these groups lists of partners, you see the same groups listed over and over. It all seems like a shell game where they all help each other get more funding.  You could spend weeks trying to find out all the places this data could go.”

How’s that for a field goal?  Companies accessing data on your children for a mere $4,000 in playground equipment.  In the scheme of things Fuel Up to Play 60 is about monetary rewards for various activities while stealing you and your child’s information.

FYI:  If your school was one that received awards with children under age 13, there are strict regulations on surveys taken of minors from 3^rd party collectors that fall under COPPA laws triggering a FTC (Federal Trade Commission) investigation for information collected on minors without adult consent.

With school issued iPads and Chromebooks increasing in our schools since 2010, and with the latest FERPA gut of 2012, again, did you give your child permission to the NFL to sell your child’s sole?  If so, how on earth is this keeping kids healthy in our schools under the same federal food stipulations in our schools?

MN Student Survey Update:  What’s new?  “Passive Consent” Disclosure

Parents are taking note of this year’s 2016 opt-out forms for the Minnesota
Student Health Survey and finding that the disclosure is different than in previous years.   So what’s new?

The headline “Passive Consent”.   Many parents continue to express that these kinds of
surveys deserve an “opt-in” notice – NOT an “opt-out.”  Here’s a little 101
on Passive Consent.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
<http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/faq/informed-consent/can-consent-be-passive-
or-implied.html> ,  “Terms such as “passive” or “implied” consent are not
referenced in the HHS regulations.”  In other words, passive consent is a process in
which consent or parental permission requirements have been altered or
waived, or for which the requirement to document consent or parental
permission has been waived, according to the website.  In education, results
of these kinds of surveys are often used as information to spur public
outreach thus creating programs to promote and enhance public awareness.

According to the Minnesota Department of Education
<http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/StuSuc/SafeSch/MNStudentSurvey/>  website,
the 2013 Minnesota Student Survey “…was administered statewide in the
first half of 2013 to public school students in grades 5, 8, 9 and 11.   All
public school districts in Minnesota were invited to participate.   Of the 334
public operating districts, 280 agreed to participate (84 percent of public
operating school districts).”  Your school district had a choice NOT to participate!

“Public school student participation was voluntary…”
Know this:  YOUR CHILD WILL BE OPTED-IN TO TAKE THE SURVEY WITHOUT YOUR
PERMISSION IF YOU DO NOT SIGN THE OPT-OUT FORM.  Period.  So is this survey
truly voluntary when the state gives a “passive consent” notice in name of
education and public awareness?  Teachers are required to tell students they
do not have to take the survey.   This further adds to peer pressure on
minors to take a survey without parental permission nor consent.   DO you
feel its right to introduce probing topics that are MEANT to take place at
home?   View the survey, use the questions as things you can answer as a
family in the PRIVACY of your own home.   NOT in a school environment.

“…and surveys were anonymous.”
Have you had a credit card breach in recent years?  Heard of Data breaches
in schools
<http://truthinamericaneducation.com/privacy-issues-state-longitudinal-data-
systems/school-data-breaches-a-new-trend-coming-to-a-minnesota-school-near-y
ou/> ?   Did you know that an audit in 2013 revealed our own MN Department of
Education “lacked “adequate internal controls”
<http://www.startribune.com/audit-questions-minnesota-education-department-c
omputer-security/221881331/>  and comprehensive security plans and had
failed to document where private data was held or the internal controls
needed to secure it.”

“Across the state, approximately 66 percent of fifth graders, 71 percent of
eighth graders, 69 percent of ninth graders and 62 percent of eleventh
graders participated in the 2013 Minnesota Student Health Survey.   Overall participation across the four
grades was approximately 67 percent of total enrollment.”
How about we get that number down to 50% student participation?  35%
Participation?  ZERO?  It’s only possible if parents sign the opt-out form!
Is your child 18 and in high school?  Tell them they are NOT required to
take the survey and use the opportunity to share with them the value of
protecting THEIR personal privacy.

After reading the questions for all the grades, do you think it’s right for
students to waste an entire hour of precious school time on a survey?  Maybe
you don’t have children in school, but you DO pay taxes.  Do you think your
tax dollars should be used for questions that TRULY BELONG TO PARENTS,
CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILES?  If you feel standardized testing is an issue,
this is a far worse tool by probing into the lives of families AND minors on
issues that have ZERO business in our schools while taking up precious
classroom time.  Surveys like this have long been happening in this state
and across the country.  It’s time to take a stand and STOP the surveying of
our children through passive consent!

Minnesota Student Health Survey 2016 is HERE!                                 

by Anne Taylor

This is a repost of Anne’s article from last week.  For your perusal, the link to the 2016 Minnesota Student Health Survey is copied into the bottom of this article.

Parents are reporting that the Minnesota Student Health survey is here!  According to the MN DOE the survey will take place anywhere from January thru May of 2016.  A note that late fall of 2015 was the cut-off for districts to decide if they wanted to distribute the annual survey to its students in 2016.  Contact your school TODAY to see if/when your school will participate in the survey.

So what is it, what do you need to know, and what are your parental rights…

• The Minnesota Student Health Survey is administered every 3 years, from grades 5-12 and includes public schools as well as some private schools.
• 111 questions are asked (19 pages long) in the form of a standardized test.
• The survey may be administered in pencil/paper, however most students will access the survey via school issued iPads, chrome books or computers.
• For the electronic version, students log in using their personal student ID code that links them to the survey.
• Parents are given the right to come into the school to view the survey, and may choose to opt their child out from taking it.
• Data results are shared statewide as well as with nonprofits and businesses. It is said this is done in order to evaluate student trends and is used for funding programs that appear to have a greater need based on data results.
• While the survey is said to be “anonymous and confidential,” again students often gain access to the survey via school issued technology and is linked to their student ID.
• “The privacy of the students is protected” according to the MNDOE. It may not be with the number of data breaches in technology and the way in which results of the survey are shared.
• Approximately 1 hour of classroom time will be used.

The Minnesota Department of Education states parents (and/or legal guardians) are to be notified by their school on the survey AND hold the right to opt-out.

If you do NOT opt-out, your child will automatically be opted-in to participate in taking the survey.  This is called “passive consent.”  See the MN Dept of Education link disclosure.

What every parent MUST know regarding the questions:  Ask yourself if you feel your family’s privacy as well as your child’s privacy is being protected.  Here are questions to expect from the 2016 survey for those in grades 7-12.

Grade, age, ethnicity, gender identity, how people may describe your child at school, who child lives with, grades, skipping class, plans after high school, visits to school nurse, discipline/suspension at school, grades, change in schools, police officers in school, physical & mental health questions, height & weight, appearance, bullying, school activities, religious/church affiliation, jobs, when the child last saw a doctor, gym class, types of food/drink consumed, seat belts, “feelings,” suicide, sexual encounters (how many partners as well as their gender), unprotected sex & protected (types of birth control used), physical and sexual abuse, cigarettes (including E-cigarettes), alcohol and drug use (illegal as well as prescription).

http://mnstudentsurvey.org/