New Jersey PPRA Legislation, Court Case, and Ed. Dept.

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Below is the New Jersey legislation (and related court action) that will go further to protect privacy than the federal PPRA (Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment) because the federal law applies only to required surveys, and does not constrain surveys that are optional for the student to take. Rather, the New Jersey legislation simply states that prior, written, informed parental consent must be obtained before any survey etc (one containing any of the enumerated catagories of information) is given to students. This New Jersey legislation also adds the catagory of "social security number" that the federal legislation doesn't include.

The bill, called the Student Survey Bill, passed the New Jersey Senate with a 23-11-6 vote and later that evening Acting Governor DiFrancesco signed it into law. Hopefully, other states will now follow suit and use New Jersey's "short" bill to pass their own legislation. This is indeed a victory for New Jersey! (See their link for more.)

ASSEMBLY, No. 3359
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
209^th LEGISLATURE
INTRODUCED MARCH 26, 2001

An Act concerning certain surveys conducted by school districts and supplementing chapter 36 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes.

1.	a.	Unless a school district receives prior written informed consent from a student's parent or legal guardian and provides for a copy of the document to be available for viewing at convenient locations and time periods, the school district shall not administer to a student any academic or nonacademic survey, assessment, analysis or evaluation which reveals information concerning: political affiliations; mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student or the student's family; sexual behavior and attitudes; illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior; critical appraisals of other individuals with whom a respondent has a close family relationship; legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers; income, other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under a program; or social security number.
	b.	The school district shall request prior written informed consent at least two weeks prior to the administration of the survey, assessment, analysis or evaluation.
	c.	A student shall not participate in any survey, assessment, analysis or evaluation that concerns the issues listed in subsection a. of this section unless the school district has obtained prior written informed consent from that student's parent or guardian.
	d.	A school district that violates the provisions of this act shall be subject to such monetary penalties as determined by the commissioner.
2.		This act shall take effect immediately.

**Related Court cases**
December 8, 2001 -- Ruling by the US Department of Education that the Ridgewood New Jersey school district violated the federal PPRA (Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment) when it administered a 156 question survey by SEARCH Institute. Basically, the Department found that the survey was not handled in such a way to make it a voluntary survey. December 10, 2001 -- Ruling by the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals reversing all (lower) district court findings except the Fifth Amendment claim, and remanding part back to the lower court for the obtaining of discovery evidence. This involves the same survey as above in #1.

This bill provides that prior to a school district administering certain academic or nonacademic surveys, assessments, analyses or evaluations to its students it must receive written informed consent from a student's parent or legal guardian and must provide a copy of the document for viewing at convenient locations and time periods. These requirements would only apply if information is revealed concerning (1) political affiliations; (2) mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student or the student's family; (3) sexual behavior and attitudes; (4) illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior; (5) critical appraisals of other individuals with whom a respondent has a close family relationship; (6) legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers; (7) income, other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under a program; or (8) social security numbers.

If a district violates the provisions of the bill, it would be subject to such monetary penalties as will be determined by the commissioner.

This bill is modeled on 20 U.S.C.A. s.1232h, commonly referred to as the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. This law provides, in part, that school districts must receive written parental consent before students are required to fill out any survey, analysis, or evaluation that is funded with moneys from the federal Department of Education and that deals with certain sensitive issues.