BILL NUMBER: S6784
SPONSOR: JACKSON
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to requiring consent
prior to sharing certain student information
 
PURPOSE:
This bill would empower public school parents and students to control
the flow of their personal information to third party contractors who
use that information for commercial gain.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends paragraph e of Subdivision 5 of Section 2-D of the
Education Law to provide that no student data shall be released to a
third party contractor without the written consent of a parent of eligi-
ble student.
Section 2 amends Section 2-C of the Education Law by adding a new Subdi-
vision 4 to provide that no student data shall be released to a shared
learning infrastructure service provider (SLISP) or data dashboard oper-
ator without the written consent of a parent of eligible student.
Section 3 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Under current law, educational agencies across the State are free to
share parents' and students' personal information with third party
contractors that use that information to conduct promotional mailings.
In New York City, for example, the Department of Education places the
obligation on parents to affirmatively opt-out of sharing their informa-
tion by submitting a removal form online. This system creates a scenario
where parents without knowledge of the removal form may be uninten-
tionally sharing their mailing address, zip code, grade level, and name
and child's name with contractors because they are unaware of the alter-
native.
This bill changes the existing opt-out system to an opt-in to better
protect New Yorkers' privacy by requiring educational agencies to first
obtain the written consent of a parent or eligible student before shar-
ing information with contractors who use that information for promo-
tional purposes.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: S.1037- Referred to Education/A.423 -Referred to Education
2021-2022: S.1970- Referred to Education/A.3323- Referred to Education
2019-2020: S.6902- Referred to Education/A.8715- Referred to Education
 
STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the 30th day after it shall have become a
law.

Statutes affected:
S6784: 2-c education law