Dear Superintendent Goldhardt,
I am following up on my Right to Know Request filed on April 7, 2021. It is now May 16th. On May 3rd [well past the 5 business days allowed by law -Skip] I received a reply from Andrew Tolan reporting:
We do not have records on point regarding item 1 of your information request. As we are not able to find any record of any such assessments/tests/surveys/questionnaires administered, items 2, 3, 5 and 6 are not applicable.
As for item 4, the privacy policy for Google Classroom is maintained by Google, and can be found at https://edu.google.com/why-google/privacy-security/.
Related: City Year challenged over MLK Day workshops on “Unpacking Whiteness”
At that time I guided him to check Humanities 3 and the Implicit Bias test from Harvard. Mr. Toland then replied on May 10th:
We were able to confirm that teachers at MST shared the link to the Harvard Implicit Bias test in Google Classroom.
I followed up with a request on May 11th:
Please provide now the information that I requested in my Right to Know Request or a date when that information will be available.
Since May 11th, I have had no follow-up on the times I requested?
Since New Hampshire Law requires the following actions be taken prior to administering non-academic surveys, I would have thought that providing this information I requested would be easy and efficient.
The policy shall provide that no student shall be required to volunteer for or submit to a non-academic survey or questionnaire, as defined in this paragraph, without written consent of a parent or legal guardian unless the student is an adult or an emancipated minor. The policy shall include an exception from the consent requirement for the youth risk behavior survey developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The policy shall also allow a parent or legal guardian to opt-out of the youth risk behavior survey developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The school district shall make such surveys or questionnaires available, at the school and on the school or school district’s website, for review by a student’s parent or legal guardian at least 10 days prior to distribution to students. In this paragraph, “non-academic survey or questionnaire” means surveys, questionnaires, or other documents designed to elicit information about a student’s social behavior, family life, religion, politics, sexual orientation, sexual activity, drug use, or any other information not related to a student’s academics.
Is there a reason that the rest of the information requested has not been provided as requested?
From: Ann Marie Banfield <banfieldannmarie@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 7:20 PM
Subject: Right to Know Request Regarding assessing racial bias in Manchester students
To: Dr. John Goldhardt <jgoldhardt@mansd.org>
Dear Superintendent Goldhart:
Pursuant to the Right to Know Law (RSA. 91-A), I am requesting public access, within 5 business days, to the governmental records reasonably described as follows:
- All records, no matter what form, including but not limited to, printed documents, electronic documents, e-mails, or any other form of records regarding assessments/tests/surveys/questionnaires for the period from 09/01/2020 to 04/07/2021 that are designed to elicit information about a student’s social behavior, family life, religion, politics, sexual orientation, sexual activity, drug use, or any other information not related to a student’s academics. Including racial or ethnicity tests which would include an assessment on implicit bias.
- Provide a copy of all questions students were required to answer.
- Provide a copy of any privacy policy from the vendor.
- Provide the privacy policy from Google Classroom.
- Provide a copy of the parental permission slip on any of these non-academic surveys or assessments.
- Provide a link to the list of questions if they were made available on the district website.
Per RSA 91-A:4 IV(c) If you deny any portion of this request, please cite the specific exemption used to justify the denial to make each record, or part thereof, available for inspection along with a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the information withheld.
Please let me know when these records are available for inspection or you may email the records to me at banfieldannmarie@gmail.com
Thank you for your lawful attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
