Members of a committee in Pierre support a bill that aims to protect student data. The measure moves to the full chamber after little debate in the Senate State Affairs committee, and lawmakers say the legislation is a step in the right direction.
Senate Bill 63 adds elements to state law to limit the kind and type of information K-12 students must provide and where it goes. The bill doesn’t stop South Dakota from providing the federal government with aggregate data, but it does prevent the state from reporting personal identifiable information from education records.
Tony Venhuizen with Governor Dennis Daugaard’s office says the executive branch supports the move.
"I wouldn’t want you think that some of the things prohibited in this bill are being done by our schools today, because many of these things, to my knowledge, are not being done by any of our schools," Venhuizen says. "But there is some value that we can find easily that spells out what can be done and what can’t be done by schools and that also spells out what kind of information we will share with the federal government and what kind of information we will not share."
The bill includes a section outlining various personal information the state can’t require students to report. Senate Bill 63 also compels the South Dakota Department of Education to develop security measures to help protect information from unauthorized uses.
Some people who support and oppose the measure are concerned it doesn’t go far enough to protect privacy. Members of Senate State Affairs want the full body to debate the bill, and they pass Senate Bill 63 out of committee.