Watchdog Wire -
Colorado school districts are collecting broad, detailed educational and psychological data on their students for use by private companies and the federal government, yet parental access to the same information remains limited and difficult to come by.
Local districts are giving parents the run-around and stalling, while the state Department of Education claims that it simply doesn’t have the ability to connect parents with their children’s data.
Recently, Watchdog Wire spoke to parents in Colorado who have been trying for months, to see their children’s data and the vendors who have access to this data.
Ft. Collins parent Cheri Kiesecker has written to the Colorado Dept of Education (CDE), which has said it cannot share data with parents. Dan Damagala, CDE’s CIO ofInformation Management Services, replied that, “The Colorado Department of Education does not have a mechanism for verifying parent/guardian relationships to students– and the release of student information to an unauthorized entity would be a violation of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).”
In other words, CDE is citing the very law intended to assure parents access to justify denying them that same access.
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