NH Schools Developing Psychological Profiles on Your Children (SAU16, SAU21 and others)

School administrators are going ahead with SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) surveys on your children. This allows Ed Tech vendors to collect sensitive mental health data on students, in order to build a psychological profile on them.

SAU21 and SAU16 are both using the PEAR survey that coincides with developing the Portrait of a Graduate/Learner, which you can read about here and here. All of this is tied to collecting massive amounts of sensitive data on your children. However, many other districts around New Hampshire are engaging in the same practices. It would be wise for parents to start looking at what SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) programs are being implemented in the school.

If you haven’t noticed what’s going on in your child’s class, you might want to look at their assignments. Many of them are focused on self-examination of your child VERSUS learning the academic content that should be taught in the classroom. This is a path to illiteracy in those core subjects because it shifts the focus away from academics.

That is why I asked SAU16 for a copy of the questions they will be asking students. The good news is they did ask for parental consent, which is required by federal and state law. However, it looks like SAU16 failed to post the survey questions on their district website. Posting questions on the district website when they administer non-academic surveys, is required by New Hampshire law.

Here is what was sent to SAU16 parents;

Dear Parent/Guardian, We continue to be very excited to collaborate with Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) in order to promote the positive social-emotional development of our school community and students. We continue to be dedicated to the developing evidence that helping students feel good about themselves, their school and their relationships improves their learning. Thank you to all who have opted-in for our PEAR survey.  We are on our way to getting a strong response from our parents and we are hoping that more of you will be willing to agree to opt-in for this survey in the next week so we can reach a significant survey number that will help us better support your child.  We are extending the survey date to October 6th, 2022 to allow all parents who wish to have their child participate in this dynamic survey.  Every student who opts-in to the survey will support CMS helping students increase their academic and social development! With extending the survey date, we are also extending the OPT-IN Response Date to October 3rd, 2022. As a reminder the statements that are on the survey are based on agreement terms. Here are two examples. I enjoy playing board games with friends (I strongly agree, I agree, I have no opinion, I disagree, I strongly disagree) I enjoy lunch with my friends (I strongly agree, I agree, I have no opinion, I disagree, I strongly disagree) All statements on the survey are available upon request.  All stored data has students’ names replaced by an ID number that is only accessible to designated team members.  This information can help staff tailor teaching and support to your child’s unique strengths and challenges. Once the survey is complete and data is gathered, CMS and PEAR will continue its collaborative efforts to develop tier 1 and 2 social-emotional learning lessons to strengthen the overall life of a student at CMS. PEAR will use data from our school for research and educational work. Your child’s name is not accessible so will never be used as part of any research project. If you have any questions about this effort or would like to see a copy of this survey, please contact Assistant Principal Clyde Perezcastaneda.  email:  cperezcastaneda@sau16.org Please take a moment to review and fill out the attached form or complete the online form via THIS LINK. Please return this form by Oct 6, 2022.  Please disregard this message if you have already completed the permission form.

I followed up with an email asking to see the questions on the mental health survey:

Once I read the questions, I then sent this email back to Mr. Perez and the school board members in SAU16:

Mr. Perez:

Thank you for your prompt reply.

You did not answer my question about why this survey has not been posted on the district website.  Please tell me why the PEAR survey has not been posted on the district website as required by state law.  No one should have to email staff members to access a non-academic survey. This information should be posted on the website as required by law:

According to RSA 186:11, IX-d requires you to: 

IX-d. Require school districts to adopt a policy governing the administration of non- academic surveys or questionnaires to students. The policy shall require school districts to notify a parent or legal guardian of a non-academic survey or questionnaire and its purpose. 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.

In addition, mental health assessments and treatment require parental consent per Federal Law. It is my understanding that the district did require parental consent for this screening. It would be helpful if they were also provided information on how this vendor will protect the privacy of the students. We can already see that they collect PII on the students’ mental health. I have found that these vendors have loopholes in their privacy policies. In other words, they’re not private at all. 

Question #22 in the last section asks:

I take things that are not mine from home, school, or elsewhere. 

 

While the survey does include a statement on stopping the survey at any time, will anyone explain to children that this question requires a student to self-incriminate? I do not see any instruction that would explain to the student, their fifth amendment rights under the United States Constitution. While this normally applies to a criminal justice system, normally children come to school to learn academic content, not answer questions on whether they’ve participated in an illegal activity. 

 

Within the privacy policy it says: . Notwithstanding any exceptions in the definition of Confidential Information, the parties agree to treat all Education Records as Confidential Information and disclosure thereof is allowed only to the extent permitted under FERPA.  

 

FERPA now includes a loophole that you can read about here: Big Tech Makes Big Data Out of Your Child: The FERPA Loophole EdTech Exploits to Monetize Student Data 

Excerpt:

The legislation’s overly broad definition of education records, combined with the 2011 Amendments expanding FERPA to permit schools to disclose data to third parties, creates a loophole for the EdTech industry to avoid COPPA regulation regarding student data.10 As a result, commercial companies can quickly amass large amounts of data and potentially avoid the FTC’s oversight of COPPA compliance by contracting directly with schools.11 This practice runs afoul of legislative intent for both FERPA and COPPA, places student data at risk by creating a vacuum of oversight, and leaves little recourse for violations of data collection or use in the EdTech industry.12

 

To the school board members, especially if you have children in the public school, you might want to brush up on the massive data mining that is taking place in SAU16 and public schools across the country. You are bringing in a vendor to collect mental health data on your children, and I have not seen any attempt to explain to parents what all of this entails. What happens if this company is sold? Who then will have access to your child’s sensitive mental health data? Who stores all of the data? Will the data ever be destroyed? What happens if there is a breach? How will you contact parents ? 

 

Did you know that all you have to do is call yourself a researcher and you can access PII? The safeguards that were once in place to prevent your child’s sensitive data, no longer exist. FERPA was gutted so that technology companies can have free reign to your child’s most personal and sensitive information.  They will build a psychological profile with this information on your children, and it’s why many parents are quietly removing their children from the public schools. 

 

It is your responsibility to look out for your children and the families you represent in the district. How much research have you done on this ?

Notice how the email to parents suggests that they should be excited about this? Notice how they gave two sample questions but left out the self-incriminating question? Notice how they didn’t attach the survey to the notice but instead required parents to contact them for a copy?  This is like being excited about buying a used car from the slick salesman who never tells you the engine doesn’t work. Do you hire these people to sell you garbage or inform you with details, facts, and information? It appears as if SAU16 is run by some of the slickest snake oil salesmen out there.

Please NOTE:  I ADVISE NO PARENT TO CONSENT TO ANY OF THESE SEL OR ANY OTHER NON-ACADEMIC SURVEY.

Too often we see administrators selling these SEL data mining surveys instead of conducting the research, and offering you all of the details you should know. I’m going to guess that you weren’t advised on any of this.

 

You can find additional information here: https://granitegrok.com/blog/2022/10/portrait-of-a-learner-in-sau21-more-data-mining-your-childs-mental-health-for. The school administrators you pay, should be providing this information to you.
 

Ann Marie Banfield 

TRUST REQUIRES TRANSPARENCY

Schools in New Hampshire and across the country are administering SEL screenings and assessments. Now you know why I advise that NO parent consent to any SEL or NON-Academic survey, questionnaire, or screening.