Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

Schools to collect Social Security numbers of students

By Matthew Stone mstone@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- State law will require Maine schools to collect students' Social Security numbers this fall and submit them to state education officials.

But the state Department of Education is advising school districts to make sure parents are aware that they don't have to submit their children's Social Security numbers when their schools ask for them.

The Department of Education on Tuesday released guidelines to school superintendents about the proper procedures for collecting student Social Security numbers. The updated guidelines come months after a Maine civil liberties group voiced concerns that the department wasn't doing enough to alert parents to the potential dangers associated with sharing their children's Social Security numbers.

Schools will start the Social Security number collection when classes begin next month to comply with a law that passed the Legislature in 2009. Officials plan to use the Social Security numbers as they develop a statewide longitudinal data system to keep track of student progress throughout school and into the workplace.

The data system comes as the Obama administration makes more aggressive student data collection a priority as a way to assess schools' long-term effectiveness and inform policy decisions. Maine received a $7.3 million federal grant in May to help the state continue developing its data system.

The guidance to superintendents recommends that schools tell parents why they're collecting Social Security numbers and that there's no consequence for withholding the information.

It's the second draft of the guidelines state education officials have sent to superintendents. They sent the first draft in May.

Department of Education officials couldn't be reached for comment late Tuesday, but a spokesman explained the guidance in a June interview.

"There's tremendmous value in this data, and parents and school districts should know that," said the spokesman, David Connerty-Marin. "It is also important that parents know that they're not required to share a Social Security number."

In June, the Maine Civil Liverties Union sent a letter to the department requesting that schools also alert parents of the privacy dangers related to the release of Social Security numbers.

Zach Heiden, MCLU's legal director, said Tuesday that the department's updated guidelines still don't do enough.

"It would have been nice for them to include that explicit caution," he said. "But for the Department of Education, it seems like it's more important to talk about the benefits of doing this data collection than it does to talk about the harms of privacy violations."

The law requiring the Social Security number collection requires that schools inform parents why they're collecting their children's Social Security numbers and that they can refuse to supply them. The statute doesn't require that they mention the potential privacy concerns associated with providing the number.

"It is our job to let parents know that they have a right to decline," Connerty-Marin said. "We are vigilant about children's security issues as required by (the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), and it's part of what we do."

In June, the school board for Bethel-based Regional School Unit 44 passed a resolution calling for a repeal of the law requiring that Social Security numbers be collected.

Last week, the MCLU sent letters to school board chairmen calling on their boards to pass resolutions affirming students' privacy rights.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com