It is turning out to be another busy week at the Statehouse. On Tuesday morning, the Education Committee passed House Bill (HB) 1320 . HB 1320 requires the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) to establish a statewide student record repository of public school student achievement records.
Currently, that data is collected but not accessible by parents and cannot be transferred by school corporations. This bill allows parents and school corporations to access student records. It also allows for the transfer of student records between school corporations and serves as a student data backup for school corporations.
Rep. Thompson authored an amendment that prohibits an agency from releasing, selling, or otherwise transferring student information to any entity unless all identifying information concerning students has been redacted. The committee agreed to pass this amendment as an important step to ensuring data security.
The committee heard testimony from John Barnes, Director of Legislative Affairs for IDOE. He expressed the department’s desire to make the bill as secure as possible to ensure that student data is protected.
The overarching goal for this legislation is to empower the parents of students by giving them access to critical student data. This allows parents the opportunity to access how their students are performing so that they can be better prepared for graduation and, in turn, the future.
HB 1320 will move to the full House for further discussion and debate. To track this piece of legislation and other bills, please visit www.in.gov/legislative.
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