BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1442|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1442
Author: Gatto (D), et al.
Amended: 8/22/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/11/14
AYES: Liu, Wyland, Block, Correa, Hancock, Huff, Monning
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/24/14
AYES: Jackson, Anderson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning, Vidak
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/15/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Pupil records: social media
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires a school district, county office
of education, or charter school that considers a program, as
specified, to gather or maintain in its records any information
obtained from social media of any enrolled pupil to notify
pupils and their parents about the proposed program.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/22/14 require a third-party that
enters into a contract with a local educational agency (LEA) to
gather social media on enrolled pupils to: (1) destroy the
information immediately upon satisfying the terms of the
contract; and (2) destroy information pertaining to a pupil when
he/she turns 18 years of age or is no longer enrolled in the
LEA. The amendments also require LEAs to provide notice to the
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third-party when a pupil turns 18 years of age or is no longer
enrolled. Further, the amendments make other clarifying changes
and narrow the scope of the definition of "educational
purposes."
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Authorizes schools to suspend or recommend for expulsion a
student who engages in an act of bullying, which is defined as
any severe or pervasive physical or verbal act or conduct,
including communications made in writing or by means of an
electronic act, directed toward one or more students that has
or can be reasonably predicted to have the effect of one or
more of the following:
A. Placing a reasonable student or students in fear of harm
to that student's or those students' person or property.
B. Causing a reasonable student to experience a
substantially detrimental effect on his/her physical or
mental health.
C. Causing a reasonable student to experience substantial
interference with his/her academic performance.
D. Causing a reasonable student to experience substantial
interference with his/her ability to participate in or
benefit from the services, activities, or privileges
provided by a school.
1.Defines "electronic act" as the creation and transmission,
originated on or off the schoolsite, by means of an electronic
device, including but not limited to a telephone, wireless
telephone, or other wireless communication device, computer,
or pager, of a communication, including but not limited to any
of the following:
A. A message, text, sounds, or image.
B. A post on a social network Internet Web site including,
but not limited to:
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(1) Posting to or creating a burn page, as defined,
created for the purpose of having one or more of the
effects listed above.
(2) Creating a credible impersonation of another actual
student, as defined, for the purpose of having one or
more of the effects listed above.
(3) Creating a false profile, as defined, for the
purpose of having one or more of the effects listed
above.
1.Prohibits a student from being suspended or expelled unless
the act is related to a school activity or school attendance.
Schools are specifically authorized to suspend or expel a
student for acts that are related to a school activity or
school attendance that occur at any time, including but not
limited to:
A. While on school grounds.
B. While going to or coming from school.
C. During the lunch period whether on or off the campus.
D. During, or while going to or coming from, a
school-sponsored activity.
1.Prohibits a school district from permitting access to student
records to any person without written parental consent or
pursuant to a judicial order except as set forth in the
federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Access to those particular records relevant to the legitimate
educational interests of the requester shall be permitted to
specific requesters, including, but not limited to, school
officials, employees of the district, members of a school
attendance review board and officials and employees of other
public schools where the pupil intends to or is enrolled.
The FERPA is intended to protect the privacy of student
education records. It applies to all schools that receive funds
under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.
Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent
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or eligible student in order to release any information from a
student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to
disclose those records, without consent, to the following
parties or under the following conditions:
School officials with legitimate educational interest;
Other schools to which a student is transferring;
Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a
student;
Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of
the school;
Accrediting organizations;
To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety
emergencies; and
State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system,
pursuant to specific state law.
Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information
such as a student's name, address, telephone number, and date
and place of birth. However, schools must tell parents and
eligible students about directory information and allow them a
reasonable amount of time to request that the school not
disclose such information. Schools must also notify parents and
eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA.
This bill:
1.Requires a school district, county office of education, or
charter school that considers a program to gather or maintain
in its records any information obtained from social media of
any enrolled pupil to notify pupils and their parents or
guardians about the proposed program and provide an
opportunity for public comment at a regularly scheduled public
meeting before adoption of the program, as specified.
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2.Requires a school district, county office of education, or
charter school that adopts a program to do all of the
following:
A. Gather or maintain only information that pertains
directly to school and pupil safety.
B. Provide a pupil with access to any information about the
pupil gathered or maintained by the school district, county
office of education, or charter school that was obtained
from social media, and an opportunity to correct or delete
such information.
C. Destroy information gathered from social media and
maintained in its records within one year after a pupil
turns 18 years of age or within one year after the pupil is
no longer enrolled in a school district, county office of
education, or charter school, whichever occurs first.
D. Notify each parent or guardian of a pupil subject to the
program that the pupils information is being gathered from
social media and that any information subject to this
bill's provisions that is maintained in a school
district's, county office of education's, or charter
school's records with regard to the pupil shall be
destroyed, as specified. Provides that the notification
contain explanations regarding the process by which a pupil
or a pupil's parent may access and request removal of
information, as specified.
3.If the school district, county office of education, or charter
school contracts with a third-party to gather information from
social media on an enrolled pupil, the contract shall do all
of the following:
A. Prohibit the third-party from using the information for
purposes other than to satisfy the terms of the contract.
B. Prohibit the third-party from selling or sharing the
information with any person or entity other than the school
district, county office of education, or charter school, or
the pupil or his/her parent or guardian.
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C. Require the third-party to destroy the information
immediately upon satisfying the terms of the contract.
D. Require the third-party, upon notice and a reasonable
opportunity to act, to destroy information pertaining to a
pupil when the pupil turns 18 years of age or is no longer
enrolled in the school district, county office of
education, or charter school, whichever occurs first. The
school district, county office of education, or charter
school shall provide notice to the third-party when a pupil
turns 18 years of age or is no longer enrolled in the
school district, county office of education, or charter
school.
1.Defines "social media" as an electronic service or account, or
electronic content, including, but not limited to, videos,
still photographs, blogs, video blogs, podcasts, instant and
text messages, email, online services or accounts, or Internet
Web site profiles or locations. Provides that social media
shall not include an electronic service or account used
exclusively for educational purposes or primarily to
facilitate creation of school-sponsored publications, such as
a yearbook or pupil newspaper, under the direction or control
of a school, teacher, or yearbook adviser.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/1/14; unable to reverify at time of
writing)
American Civil Liberties Union
California Federation of Teachers
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
OPPOSITION : (Verified 7/1/14; unable to reverify at time of
writing)
Capitol Resource Institute
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, the
number of social media platforms that students have access to
such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has never been greater.
And while social media outlets provide numerous opportunities
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for networking, keeping in touch, information sharing and
self-expression, they also deliver platforms for questionable
behavior such as cyber-bullying, hate speech, and
self-destructive language. In recent years, students, parents,
and the general public have had to confront the increasing
incidence of cyber-bullying or the use of electronic media to
harass, intimidate, or terrorize another student. As a result,
existing law now allows a student to be suspended or recommended
for expulsion for bullying by means of an electronic act.
Some school districts have also elected to monitor the social
media activities of their pupils as a means for early discovery
and intervention to prevent incidences of cyber-bullying from
escalating to something more serious such as violence or
personal injury. Specifically, the Glendale Unified School
District contracted with a social media monitoring service that
mines publicly available information from students' accounts
that might suggest the need for an intervention, such as
suicidal thoughts, bullying, or vandalism and provides daily
reports to school administrators.
According to the author's office, some students and parents feel
that this data collection constitutes an inappropriate intrusion
into their off campus lives. In addition, they indicate that
pictures and texts posted by still-young and impressionable
students have the potential to be stored by private companies,
only to be released later in ways that could haunt them in their
adult lives. This bill is intended to address those concerns by
imposing restrictions on the use of information obtained from
social media by local education agencies and their contractors.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Capitol Resource Institute
writes, "While AB 1442 seeks to inform parents and students when
school districts monitor the social media accounts of minor
students, the bill lacks numerous safeguards. This bill should
be amended to explicitly prohibit any action from being taken
against a student who has posted something on social media that
is constitutionally protected free speech. Students have
limited First Amendments protections while at schools and school
functions. The bill should be amended to explicitly preclude
'emails,' 'texts,' and 'instant messages' from the definition of
social media. By including the terms 'email' and 'text' within
the definition of 'social media,' school administrators assume
they are authorized to gather and maintain information from
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emails sent and received by students. An explicit prohibition
would ensure that schools do not attempt to read students'
emails. Finally, this bill should be amended to require that
the notice to parents and students includes an explanation of
the process in which parents and students may access the
student's records, the process in which they may request the
removal of false information or make corrections to the
information gathered and the ability to receive confirmation
when the records are destroyed."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/15/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,
Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A. P�rez, V.
Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron,
Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mansoor, Vacancy
PQ:e 8/25/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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