Parent contact information prohibition from being designated as publicly available directory information
Summary
SF1118 amends Minnesota’s Government Data Practices Act provisions governing educational data to prohibit schools and other educational agencies or institutions from treating a parent’s home address, telephone number, email address, or other personal contact information as public directory information. The bill keeps parent data generally classified as private data on individuals, while preserving existing procedures that allow schools to designate certain student information as directory information under state and federal law.
The bill also adds a limited exception for school district referendum voter outreach. During the 90-day period before a referendum election, an educational agency or institution must provide a committee, upon request and unless a district-wide policy prohibits it, with a parent’s address, telephone number, and email address for outreach purposes. The committee may use the information only for referendum voter outreach, must destroy it within 15 days after the election, and is subject to enforcement penalties for misuse. The bill further clarifies that schools must still share parent contact information with the Minnesota Department of Education for federal reporting, and may share it with the Department of Employment and Economic Development for special education transition services.
Impact
If enacted, the bill would amend Minnesota Statutes section 13.32 by narrowing what may be treated as directory information in schools and by expressly protecting parent contact information as private data. It would apply to K-12 educational agencies and institutions, but not to postsecondary institutions, and would override any prior practice of listing parent contact details as publicly available directory information. The bill also creates a specific, time-limited disclosure rule for referendum-related voter outreach and preserves existing data-sharing obligations with state agencies for reporting and disability transition services.
Sentiment
The bill appears to be framed as a privacy-protection measure for parents, with the title and text emphasizing that personal contact information should not be publicly disclosed as directory information. The available record shows no committee transcript or vote history, so there is no documented floor or committee debate to indicate broader support or opposition. Based on the text alone, the measure seems designed to balance privacy concerns with narrow exceptions for election-related outreach and required government reporting.
Contention
The main point of potential contention is the tension between parent privacy and access to contact information for school district referendum campaigning. The bill generally bars schools from making parent contact information public, but it creates a special disclosure pathway for committees engaged in referendum voter outreach, subject to strict use and destruction limits. Another possible issue is the bill’s carve-out for postsecondary institutions, which are exempt from the prohibition on designating parent contact information as directory information. No recorded testimony or votes are available to show which stakeholders raised these concerns, but the affected parties would likely include school districts, parent advocacy groups, referendum committees, and state education agencies.