Date: 02/09/2015

Final
BILL SUMMARY for HB15-1108

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
Adopt amendment L.002 (Attachment J). The motion p
Postpone House Bill 15-1108 indefinitely. The moti
Refer House Bill 15-1108, as amended, to the Commi		PASS
PASS
FAIL



05:49 PM -- HB15-1108

Representative Lundeen, sponsor, presented House Bill 15-1108, which codifies the protections afforded to student data. He discussed his own educational experiences and how the advent of digital data has created risks to privacy. He discussed an amendment he will be offering, and its provisions. He talked about the need for deleting data, the need for restricting the transfer of data to third parties and the need for binding the transfer based on specific purposes. He discussed the bill's acknowledgement of local control and how the bill allows parents to prohibit the transfer of their student's data to any party outside the district. Representative Lundeen responded to questions from the committee.


06:00 PM

The following people testified:

06:00 PM -- Jane Urschel, representing the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB), spoke in opposition to the bill. She discussed the needs of school boards and stated that assessments and surveys provide needed information to schools and districts. She disclosed her opposition to the parental opt-out provisions, but that she would support a more measured approach to the issue if the bill were to place more burden on vendors. Ms. Urschel responded to questions from the committee.


06:14 PM

Committee discussion ensued.

06:15 PM -- Lisa Escarcega, representing the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE), spoke in opposition to the bill. She discussed the bill's provisions and its lack of definitions. She discussed the needs of her students and her district. She gave examples of unintended consequences and discussed the bill's impact on the October student count, special education funding, and the transfer of student records.

06:20 PM -- Callan Clark, representing the Consortium of Directors of Special Education, spoke in opposition to the bill. She discussed the specific language in the bill and its unintended consequences. She discussed the challenges involved in implementing the provisions of the bill relating to special education, particularly those provisions that impact mental health services and students with disabilities. She mentioned the bill's provision for the destruction of records when a student turns 18 and how that would impact disabled students, whose age of majority is 21.


06:27 PM

The preceding two witnesses responded to questions from the committee.

06:31 PM -- Dr. Allison Shupe, representing the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), spoke in opposition to the bill. She distributed information garnered from the Healthy Kids Colorado survey (Attachment F). She discussed the needs of the department to conduct surveys, how surveys are conducted, how data are maintained, how data are shared, and the fact that responses are not personally identifiable.

15HouseEd0209AttachF.pdf15HouseEd0209AttachF.pdf

06:34 PM -- Anne Marie Braga, representing CDPHE, discussed the programmatic impacts of the bill. She talked about the data that CDPHE receives from surveys, and how communities and state and local agencies all use survey results to best meet the needs of youth and change their lives. She discussed the survey and its results and how it helps the state understand depression and suicidal thoughts among Colorado youth.


06:38 PM

The preceding two witnesses responded to questions from the committee.

06:44 PM -- Laurel Flahive, representing herself, spoke about the bill. She discussed the need to collect personal and private information. She discussed data mining and posited that it diminishes parents' authority.

06:47 PM -- Deanna Miller, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She discussed surveys a teacher-friend had participated in. She discussed the varying needs for parental permission She spoke about Teaching Strategies Gold.

06:51 PM -- Toni Walker, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She spoke about the ability of schools and districts to share data, and her fears about data being shared and sold. She discussed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and stated that there is an exception in that law to allow companies to sell data collected from children in the classroom. She stated that classrooms are the venue for data laundering. She commented on data-sharing among state departments.

06:55 PM -- Gabriel Sampayo, representing himself, spoke in favor of the bill. He told the committee about a survey he took in school. He discussed his rights and how he was threatened with a failing grade for not taking the survey in school. He handed out a packet of information, including copy of the survey he took (Attachment G).

15HouseEd0209AttachG.pdf15HouseEd0209AttachG.pdf

07:01 PM -- Mary Senora, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She discussed her work as a marriage and family therapist and her educational background. She went over a copy of the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (Attachment H). She discussed the challenges in finding suicidal students out of an anonymous survey and questioned the rationale behind conducting research on suicide or depression anonymously. She stated that the survey is coercive and children feel intimidated. She discussed the need for increased privacy protections.

07:06 PM -- Tracy Burnett, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She discussed the nature of privacy and said that privacy is not about the protection of data, but rather about governmental authorities not collecting data in the first place. She stated that the questions on the Healthy Kids survey (Attachment H) are not age-appropriate for her child, who is 11 years old. She stated that the survey gave him the idea to sniff glue. Ms. Burnett responded to questions from the committee.

15HouseEd0209AttachH.pdf15HouseEd0209AttachH.pdf

07:13 PM -- Jason Hopfer, representing Douglas County School District, delivered testimony for Robert Ross, the Legal Counsel for the district. He discussed the bill's alignment with the philosophy of the district. Mr. Hopfer responded to questions from the committee. He stated that the suicide assessment and threat assessment are taken seriously by school districts and argued that those assessments would not be affected by this bill.

07:16 PM -- Jillian Moster, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She spoke about her children and their enrollment in Douglas County schools. She discussed her 10 year old's experience in the classroom in a lesson on empathy. She urged the committee to vote in favor of the bill.

07:21 PM -- Cheri Kiesecker, representing herself, spoke in favor of the bill. She spoke about big data and big money, and contrasted herself to those interests. She discussed her wish for an opt-out for parents. She told the committee that the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) told her she was not authorized to see her children's data under the Family Educational Records Privacy Act (FERPA). Ms. Kiesecker responded to questions from the committee. She stated that data is collected so companies can make billions of dollars from kids' data. She stated that FERPA does not cover data because the law is 40 years old. She continued to respond to questions from the committee.

07:31 PM -- Donna Jack, representing herself, spoke about the bill. She discussed Jefferson County and InBloom. She discussed data uploads. She discussed her work in schools in the 1980s, and how education has changed in the last 30 years with the addition of Individual Educaton Plans (IEPs). She argued that teaching should not be individual. She discussed the pressure on teachers and the addition of a dashboard and how that makes data sharing too easy. She discussed the intimacy of the questions asked of children.

07:35 PM -- Deborah Cole, representing herself, spoke in favor of the bill. She told the committee she thinks parents should be worried about the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) assessments. She discussed CDE's definition of postsecondary and workforce readiness (PWR). She discussed the skills expected of children under PWR and Common Core.

07:40 PM -- Elizabeth Berg, representing herself, spoke in favor of the bill. She discussed her experience as the principal of a charter school. She discussed the wedge between parents and CDE and how schools are told to encourage children to violate the wishes of their parents. She discussed her instructions from CDE explicitly stating that children may not opt out of state assessments. She discussed the state assessment requirements, and gag orders placed on assessment proctors. She discussed her feelings of powerlessness as an administrator. Ms. Berg responded to questions from the committee.

07:48 PM -- Kanda Calef, representing herself, spoke in favor of the bill. She discussed privacy concerns, particularly as they relate to children. She discussed opt-in vs. opt-out options for parents. She discussed her school's participation in Teaching Strategies Gold, and how only some children are picked to participate or to take certain assessments.

07:52 PM -- Jennifer Butts, representing herself, spoke in favor of the bill. She discussed the need to protect children's data. She spoke about assessments. She spoke about the equal need for regulating nonprofits and vendors.

07:57 PM -- Bethany Drosendahl, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She discussed her work on the state Standards and Assessments Task Force and spoke about parents not having questions answered by CDE. She urged the committee to pass the bill.

08:00 PM -- Jess Loben, representing himself, spoke in support of the bill. He discussed his experience in information management. He discussed his children's experiences and threats of withholding of educational services based on his exercising of parental rights. He spoke against districts' earlier assertion that each parental opt-out questionnaire costs money. He discussed his reluctance for any agency - state, nonprofit, or vendor - to have data on his children.

08:04 PM -- Carol Morenz, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She discussed the protection of privacy.

08:08 PM -- Cindy Begones, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She discussed her son's experiences taking surveys in school.

08:11 PM -- Sarah Sampayo, representing herself, spoke in support of the bill. She discussed CASB's support of the bill, a letter from the United States Department of Education to Commissioner Hammond, questions on the ACT, and the Healthy Kids survey. She read questions from the Healthy Kids Survey. She spoke about the right of parents to opt out. She discussed the history of the Democratic party. She discussed her son's testimony earlier. Ms. Sampayo responded to questions from the committee. She discussed ICAP requirements and distributed a packet of information to the committee (Attachment I).

15HouseEd0209AttachI.pdf15HouseEd0209AttachI.pdf

08:21 PM

Representative Lundeen introduced amendment L.002 (Attachment J), which removes the 85 percent threshhold for conducting a survey. Representative Lundeen responded to questions from the committee.

15HouseEd0209AttachJ.pdf15HouseEd0209AttachJ.pdf
BILL:HB15-1108
TIME: 08:23:47 PM
MOVED:Lundeen
MOTION:Adopt amendment L.002 (Attachment J). The motion passed on a vote of 6-5.
SECONDED:Wilson
VOTE
Everett
Yes
Fields
No
Garnett
Yes
Lee
No
Lundeen
Yes
Moreno
No
Priola
Yes
Wilson
Yes
Windholz
Yes
Pettersen
No
Buckner
No
YES: 6 NO: 5 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS


08:29 PM
BILL:HB15-1108
TIME: 08:29:55 PM
MOVED:Lundeen
MOTION:Refer House Bill 15-1108, as amended, to the Committee on Appropriations. The motion failed on a vote of 5-6.
SECONDED:Everett
VOTE
Everett
Yes
Fields
No
Garnett
No
Lee
No
Lundeen
Yes
Moreno
No
Priola
Yes
Wilson
Yes
Windholz
Yes
Pettersen
No
Buckner
No
YES: 5 NO: 6 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: FAIL


08:42 PM
BILL:HB15-1108
TIME: 08:42:58 PM
MOVED:Moreno
MOTION:Postpone House Bill 15-1108 indefinitely. The motion passed on a vote of 6-5.
SECONDED:Lee
VOTE
Everett
No
Fields
Yes
Garnett
Yes
Lee
Yes
Lundeen
No
Moreno
Yes
Priola
No
Wilson
No
Windholz
No
Pettersen
Yes
Buckner
Yes
Final YES: 6 NO: 5 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS