With the mass school closures due to COVID-19, there has been a sudden shift to crisis schooling via remote learning, and in the wake of this existing student data privacy concerns about education technology have ballooned.

Unfortunately, in many cases, parents’ need and desire to protect their children’s privacy has been put in direct conflict with how schools are attempting to provide a substitute for education away from the physical classroom.

As families across Illinois cope with adapting to life and learning during the Covid-19 epidemic, we were contacted by a group of parents and community members in Waukegan who are going through a particularly difficult struggle with their district.

Update 4:30pm Fri. 3/13: Thank you for advocating! Your voices were heard today. Gov. Pritzker announced all private and public schools will be closed beginning Tuesday March 17th through March 30th.

More advocating going to be needed in the months to come to make sure children and families and communities are getting what they need in very difficult times.

In this Issue:

1. The Right to Play Every Day bill, SB3717 
2. New Mexico's AG sues Google for violating student data privacy protections
3. Gov. Pritzker’s inadequate budget for K-12 schools

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January 28th is Data Privacy Day, an international annual day of awareness to promote protection of our personal data.

Illinois has a state law to protect student data privacy, the Student Online Personal Protection Act---a law that will be even stronger when the amendments we worked to pass last year go into effect.

But, even as it stands now, vendors cannot legally sell, rent or lease student data they collect in Illinois' schools.

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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The Illinois State Board of Education held four meetings this fall around the state to gather input on its budget for fiscal year 2021. You can see the budget for FY2020 as enacted here. Below you can read the testimony we submitted about our concerns about the funds to be appropriated for assessments to two test vendors, Pearson and the College Board.

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.