Parent Opt Out

Allowing parents to opt their children out of certain data collection practices could do more harm than good, a report by The Future of Privacy Forum says.
It could leave students behind and cripple school administration, the report says. For example, proposed legislation in New York would have made it difficult to manage schools on a day-to-day basis and would have made it more expensive, the report says. State Education Commissioner John King said, “Everything from course scheduling to transportation to school lunches to high school transcripts for college applications would be impacted.”
In addition, teachers would find their classrooms divided into which students can use certain educational tools and which cannot. That could skew assessment results, the report says.
The Data Quality Campaign also released a policy brief on the issue. Requiring parental consent before any kind of data collection could in turn, weaken parents’ ability to get information about their child and diminish the quality of personalized instruction, the brief says. It will also limit policymakers’ ability to evaluate educational programs.

DQC recommends that policymakers find ways to help parents and the public understand why data is being collected and why it’s beneficial for educational programs. Parents need to know that they can view the data and that they’re aware of their rights under federal and state law, the brief says.