IL-FPS is in Springfield today and tomorrow talking to legislators about giving our state student data privacy law some teeth by passing HB 2696.

Right now, the Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA) depends solely on our IL State Attorney General for enforcement.

There have been major data breaches hitting Illinois’ public schools every couple years since SOPPA passed in 2017—with questions every time about whether the vendor was actually securing kids' data adequately, something that SOPPA requires:

• Pearson AIMSweb (2018)

• Battelle for Kids (2021)

• PowerSchool (2024)

• Cleo (2024)

But there has been no action taken against these companies by our AG.

The same goes for testing vendors that sell student data. The College Board sells data collected in when their tests are administered in schools, and now that the ACT is the high school test, ACT Education Corp is doing the same. Complaints to the AG about this illegal practice from legislators, families and privacy advocates have gone unheeded.

The truth is the AG has a lot on his plate these days, fighting against illegal acts by the Trump administration. He was on ABC just last week saying this himself:

“Raoul said his best lawyers are strained with a limited budget, adding that his office is overburdened not just fighting the Trump administration, but keeping up with the state's regular case load.”

At the same time, the ability of federal agencies, like the US Department of Ed, FTC, SEC, FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to enforce privacy protections is being gutted.

HB 2696 would give families another enforcement option for SOPPA---bringing lawsuits against companies that violate it (aka “a private right of action”).

This wasn’t in previous versions of SOPPA because Big Tech companies fought it.

Now the General Assembly has the opportunity to make SOPPA a stronger law. The existing protections written into SOPPA can’t work without enforcement: tech companies have no motivation to follow the law!

Call your state rep today, tell them you are a constituent who cares about protecting students’ personal private data, and ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor of HB 2696.

Current sponsor list here. If your rep isn't on it, make another call! You can follow up your call with an email and complete two witness slips for hearings that HB 2696 is scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday here (How-To for filing a slip here):

⇒ bit.ly/HB2696mar19PROPONENT
⇒ bit.ly/HB2696mar20PROPONENT

Our state legislators need to step up. The price of a public education shouldn’t be a child’s private data!