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Rep. Dave Upthegrove, serving the 33rd District Serving Sea-Tac, Des Moines, Normandy Park and large parts of Kent and Burien. |
Homeschooling families gain same privacy protections as their public school counterparts
Governor signs Upthegrove bill to shield homeschoolers’ student data
April 23, 2009
OLYMPIA – It has been a little quirk of public records law:
homeschooled students had their personal information released to any
requestor, but public school students’ information was protected.
Today, Governor Gregoire signed legislation to give homeschooling
families the same privacy protections.
“This is an issue of
fairness,” said state Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D- Des
Moines), the measure’s prime sponsor. “It shouldn’t matter if your
child is educated at home instead of the local public school. If we
are protecting the personal information of some students, we need to
extend that protection to all students.”
Upthegrove’s
House Bill 1288 exempts the declaration of intent form that
homeschooling families must complete each year from disclosure under
the state’s Public Records Act. The student records of public school
children are automatically protected under the Federal Educational
Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). But homeschooled students’
information has not enjoyed the same protection because they are not
enrolled in public school. As a result, homeschooling families often
receive unwanted, unsolicited mail from marketers.
“When a
school district released information on over a hundred homeschool
families to a third party, we knew we needed to act,” said DiAnna
Brannan of Kent, who founded the statewide grassroots lobbying
organization Christian Homeschool Network with her husband, Scott.
“The Christian Homeschool Network introduced this bill to
make sure this would not happen again. We are thankful that the
Legislature agreed with us and acted swiftly to pass this bill into
law.”
The House approved the measure on March 3 by a vote of
96 to 1. On April 9, it passed the Senate unanimously. The new law
takes effect in 90 days.
From left: Rep. McCune, Rep. Upthegrove, DiAnna Brannan and Scott Brannan
(co-founders of the Christian Homeschool Network) and members of the Christian
Homeschool Network pose with Governor Chris Gregoire