In this issue:

1. Our newest campaign: the Right to Play Every Day!
2. Keep pressure on the College Board to stop illegal data sales
3. Graduated income tax on the ballot in November

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In this issue: 

1. College Board’s data sales — Ask your legislators for a subject matter hearing; 
2. FTC looking at changing privacy rules for schools — Submit comments;
3. President Cullerton retiring — One of the biggest obstacles in the ongoing fight for an elected board for Chicago is stepping down in January; 
4. Quick links — What’s in the new contract for Chicago teachers; ISBE budget hearing & board meeting; delay on effective date for new law on IEP paperwork.

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The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) recently posted a new parental consent form for the Student Search Service survey. This is an optional questionnaire that's administered along with SAT, PSAT and Advanced Placement exams sold by the College Board.

The new consent form is inadequate in several ways, and we sent State Superintendent Carmen Ayala a letter asking ISBE to address our concerns.

In this issue: 

1. Veto session — Call your legislators about HB256 & SB453; 
2. Standardized tests and student data privacy — College Board’s data sales and Pearson’s massive breach; 
3. #RedforEd — Teachers’ fight for resources around the state

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Ahead of next week’s administration of the PSAT exam in schools around the state, nine Illinois state legislators are asking Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to investigate the business practices of a major state vendor, the College Board, the standardized test maker that sells the SAT, PSAT and Advanced Placement exams.  

On Wednesday September 25th, Chicago Public Schools Chief Information Officer Phil DiBartolo confirmed that Illinois' largest school district, Chicago Public Schools, was also part of the Pearson AIMSweb data breach that Pearson first announced in July.

Governor Pritzker signed a slew of bills into law this past Friday—including two of our very own initiatives, student data privacy and class size goals, and three more important laws that we’ve been working on with coalitions! 

These bills' passage are the outcome of years of hard work and would not have been possible without the collective action of parents and public school supporters across Illinois!

In July Pearson began notifying 13,000 school districts and universities that its AIMSweb product was breached in November 2018. Pearson discovered the breach in March. We're keeping a running list of Illinois school districts known to be affected by the breach below.

Two RYH Action initiatives pass both chambers!

After many rounds of negotiations, trips to Springfield, hundreds of calls and witness slips filed and a subject matter hearing in the House last summer, our student data privacy bill HB3606 passed in both chambers! Parents will now have a right to know what data is being collected in school, how it’s being used, the ability to inspect, correct and delete it, and there will be mandatory policies about data breaches. (More on what this bill does here.) Thanks to our chief sponsors Rep Rob Martwick and Sen Omar Aquino, and all of you who put in the work to achieve this!

There are several bills under consideration in the IL General Assembly right now that would protect children's data in and out of school, including the much needed student data protection bill RYH Action has been working on, HB3606/SB2089.