NJ State Identification Number for all K-12 students
David Farber <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.culture.people.interesting-people |
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Begin forwarded message: From: Joel Reidenberg <[email protected]> Date: October 26, 2006 10:56:13 PM EDT To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: NJ State Identification Number for all K-12 students The NJ Commissioner of Education made a presentation yesterday about the state's plans to create a state-issued student id number for every K-12 student in all NJ public schools before the end of this year. The Commissioner claimed that every state was creating the same state-issued student identifier. From the presentation, there does not appear to be any thought given to security, restrictions on the use of the identifier when the students are no longer enrolled in public schools (ie this becomes a de facto national id number), restrictions on data access (e.g. how does the state plan to keep its felons away from the data), and restrictions on illegitimate uses of the data. Unless I am missing something, the purported justification, the federal No Child Left Behind Act reporting requirements, does not make any sense. To give you an idea of the scope of data tracking, the NJ program will require each school district throughout the state to report the following personal information to set up the database: "• Local Student Identification Number • First Name • Middle Name • Last Name • Generation Suffix (if applicable) • Date of Birth • Gender • City, Country of Birth • County Code of Residence • District Code of Residence • Attending District Code • Attending School Code • Program Entry Date (referring to “Program” as it applies to the NJ School Register • Attending School Entry Date • School Code of Residence http://www.nj.gov/njded/njsmart/082906memo.pdf Once the database is established, the state plans to require reporting of individual student performance. If all states are indeed creating these tracking databases, the intrusiveness and risks to student privacy are staggering. Looks ripe for litigation! Regards, Joel ********************************************** Joel R. Reidenberg Professor of Law and Founding Director Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy Fordham University School of Law 140 West 62nd Street New York, NY 10023 Tel: 212-636-6843 Fax: 212-636-6899 Email: [email protected] Web: http://reidenberg.home.sprynet.com **********************************************