The Loophole to End Transparency is Soon to Become Nebraska Law
How one word changes everything regarding 2025 LB 428
For four years the Nebraska Education Coalition has been advocating for parental notification before schools give non-academic surveys to students. The education lobby, which includes the Nebraska State Education Association (teachers’ union), the Nebraska Association of School Boards, and the Superintendents Association, kills every effort. It is no secret the people controlling the money in education DO NOT want to “partner” with parents, no matter how much they proclaim otherwise.
LB 428 is a weak bill. It asks schools to notify parents of upcoming surveys, giving them an opportunity to opt their student out of the process. It DOES NOT require the schools to obtain permission from parents, just to notify them. But it is the closest thing we have had to a transparency bill—ever.
This bill has miraculously jumped every hurdle and is close to becoming law.
The reason this bill has the blessing of the education lobby is because of one word which creates a loophole that allows for schools to survey students at will. It actually weakens current privacy statutes put in place by the federal government decades ago.
The bill is here: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Intro/LB428.pdf
The problem is with the qualifying word ‘non-anonymous.’ According to this bill, transparency and parental notification only apply to ‘non-anonymous’ surveys.
Therefore, transparency DOES NOT apply to ‘anonymous surveys.’
What is the definition of ‘anonymous?’
If a private corporation such as Panorama, as one example, conducts a survey on “school climate,” as we have previously discussed, they will collect everything to their cloud and have the right to sell that data or use it however they wish. Paper surveys can be easily coded. If the survey is online, Panorama identifies you by your IP address. Data breaches happen. In the age of artificial intelligence, there is no such thing as anonymous.
As a student, your personal data is at risk.
Will Panorama (or any other SEL or ed tech vendor) claim their surveys are ‘anonymous?’ They already do. They share your personal results with administrators and the cloud. However, since one student doesn’t know the results of another student, that becomes the loose definition of ‘anonymous.’
There is no such thing as a ‘non-anonymous survey’ according to survey administrators.
This loophole will create a protected class of survey called ‘anonymous’ which does not require parental notification.
Therefore, NO survey will require parental notification.
One survey that is as close to anonymous as possible is the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), administered by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
This survey asks students about every topic the federal privacy law prohibits: sexuality, drug use, criminal behavior, mental health. This survey is the one most objected to by parents when they learn what it entails. (The federal privacy law, PPRA, has plenty of loopholes to the point where it is just a suggestion.)
The CDC itself says their survey is voluntary, and school boards can decide not to give it. The instructions for giving the CDC's survey specify how to obtain parental consent and the first sentence is: "You will need to obtain parent permission for students to participate." See page 4 of the linked CDC guidelines.
Most Nebraska school districts are currently using the "passive parental permission" method outlined by the CDC if they give these surveys. This is the same method outlined in LB 428. Parents are becoming used to opting out if they wish. They can’t opt out if they are not notified.
Nebraska needs to take parental consent at least as seriously as the CDC does.
By having the word ‘non-anonymous’ in this bill, the legislature is actually removing protections that already exist for surveys administered by the CDC and similar entities.
How so?
This bill as written creates two classes of surveys. Anonymous and non-anonymous, with those terms free to be defined by the company giving the survey. From a parent's point of view, any survey is an invasion of privacy and should require parental notification. The PPRA came into being for that very reason.
Families maintain that the process of taking surveys is not harmless. Leading questions can sway impressionable youngsters. Some of the surveys are designed to do just that, similar to a push poll.
Are the parents’ right to consent and the students’ right to privacy negated because a survey claims to be anonymous?
How will the schools explain to the parent that a certain survey is exempt from parental notification because the legislature said so?
How many more ‘anonymous’ surveys will be added to the docket since they no longer require parental notification?
How will the schools prove to parents the survey is ‘anonymous’ and therefore exempt?
When (not if) parents proceed to file lawsuits, how will a school defend itself?
We maintain there are not two classes of surveys, there is only one class, and it is already established law that parental consent is required if you are going to ask about the "sensitive areas" listed on the PPRA. Schools are used to obtaining parental consent for the CDC survey, and they need to be doing it for any others.
We can foresee all kinds of mischief from having 2 ill-defined classes of surveys, one of which does not require parental notification. Here is just one example of the potential for ‘anonymous’ surveys to be abused.
MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) is a new mental health initiative being put in place in Nebraska that requires every student to be screened for mental health, whether or not they display significant behavioral issues. “Screened” means surveyed.
If Nebraska follows their stated plan for MTSS, this will be a huge intrusion into the children’s and the families’ privacy. I have not seen any mention of parental consent in the Nebraska plan. They do mention "data-based decision making" quite a bit. Whose data?
Please contact your State Senator today about LB 428.
Ask them this- Are the parents’ right to consent and the students’ right to privacy negated because a survey claims to be anonymous?
Urge them to either amend out the word ‘non-anonymous’ or withdraw the bill. If it passes, please ask the Governor not to sign it. If LB428 becomes law as written, the damage will be difficult to reverse.
https://nebraskalegislature.gov/senators/senator_list.php
by Sue Greenwald, M.D. of Nebraska Education Coalition