How the feds are tracking your kid

[chanel]

Holy crap. Why isn't this front page news?

Would it bother you to know that the federal Centers for Disease Control had been shown your daughter’s health records to see how she responded to an STD/teen-pregnancy-prevention program? How about if the federal Department of Education and Department of Labor scrutinized your son’s academic performance to see if he should be “encouraged” to leave high school early to learn a trade? Would you think the government was intruding on your territory as a parent?

Under regulations the Obama Department of Education released this month, these scenarios could become reality. The department has taken a giant step toward creating a de facto national student database that will track students by their personal information from preschool through career. Although current federal law prohibits this, the department decided to ignore Congress and, in effect, rewrite the law. Student privacy and parental authority will suffer.

How did it happen? Buried within the enormous 2009 stimulus bill were provisions encouraging states to develop data systems for collecting copious information on public-school kids. To qualify for stimulus money, states had to agree to build such systems according to federally dictated standards. So all 50 states either now maintain or are capable of maintaining extensive databases on public-school students.

Read more: Student privacy at risk from feds—Emmett McGroarty & Jane Robbins - NYPOST.com

Perhaps they are looking for illegals? (ha ha chanel made a funny)

 

[editec]

And yet when some of us warn about the growing police state, other here tell us they cannot see what we're talking about.

They idiots demand that we tell them, for example, "What rights have YOU lost?"

It positively astounds me how utterly stupid some of our fellow posters here are.

As,. not doubt it astounds many others here when they read such tripe.

 

[chanel]

I am astounded by this. NJ schools cannot even ask for students' SSN#s. How would this info be traced? By name? What a clusterfuck that would be.

I have a real problem with FERPA. Parents who are paying for their children's education should be able to have access to their records. But check this out. While parents of children over 18 may not see their kid's grades, strangers can.

Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):

* School officials with legitimate educational interest;
* Other schools to which a student is transferring;
* Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
* Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
* Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
* Accrediting organizations;
* To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
* Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
* State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)