A few weeks ago, PowerSchool issued an alert that there had been a data breach. In quieter news, PowerSchool is involved in a lawsuit charging the ed tech vendor with selling student data. Parents need to realize that their child’s personal information is not secure in our public schools no matter what they tell you.
Online ed tech vendors can give away personal data on students legally due to a change in the federal student privacy FERPA law. There are certain conditions where this is legal. Ed Tech vendors have experienced data breaches, they also sell, and give away the data they collect. What does that mean to your child in school?
Most parents want their child’s grades and personal information kept confidential.It’s one thing when your child’s grades have been compromised, it’s quite another thing when it’s their mental health or behavior data that is shared.
Some parents are opting out of the mental health services in their public schools for this reason. Parents have told school administrators that they do not want their children participating in Social and Emotional Learning for various reasons. SEL vendors data mine mental health, and behavioral health on children. By opting out, parents can prevent the SEL vendors from accessing their child’s personal information. This is a good first step.
What happens when SEL is embedded in the math program used in school?
Seabrook schools in New Hampshire use Eureka2 as their math program. Eureka2 integrates social and emotional learning into its math program. That means less math learning in class and more time spent on SEL. This is why I’m not surprised that the math proficiency scores are low shockingly low.
An example of what they will be doing instead of math involves focusing on:
Social awareness. The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures; the ability to understand social and ethical norms for behavior and to recognize family, school, and community resources and support.


Schools across the country have been engaging in building psych profiles on students through Social and Emotional Learning. This article in the Wall Street Journal titled: Have You Seen Junior’s Psych Profile, was written by a New Hampshire physician. Dr. Aida Cerundolo explains how SEL vendors are building psychological profiles on children using SEL programs and assessments:
Educators and administrators increasingly are using psychological screening tools to identify children who are at risk for social and emotional issues, and to assess programs geared toward improving social and emotional skills.
The justification for blanket screening of all students is noble—to identify those who may benefit from intervention before their social and emotional issues become a problem that impedes success in school and life. But aren’t we really creating psychological profilesthat in other settings would be deemed confidential? If so, what is the privacy cost to students who are not at risk for a psychological imbalance, yet whose mental-health information is being documented by teachers and tracked over time?
None of this appears to be a concern for the school administrators across New Hampshire were SEL programs are used. If you decide you don’t want your child involved in SEL classes in schools, there is a way to opt out of SEL. But these data mining vendors are smarter than that- -Data is gold. Eureka2 will just embed their data-mining mental health component in the math program. They will be data-mining your child’s math grades and mental health, at the same time. They can gather math scores and build a psychological profile on your child during math class.
How do you opt out of this? That’s a good question. Parents can legally opt their children out of objectionable materials , but what happens when it’s the math program? I know parents who opted their children out of the dumb-down Common Core math, so it is doable if you can provide your child a quality math education outside the school district.
Maybe going back to textbooks like they are doing in Sweden isn’t such a bad idea after all. Students can still learn how to use technology in school without the added problems that come with handing them 1:1 devices. You have no idea where their math scores will end up or their sensitive mental health data too.