BILL NUMBER: S9597

SPONSOR: CLEARE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to enabling students to
receive information from colleges and universities without disclosing
their personally identifiable information

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This bill amends Education Law 2-D to permit students and their families
to affirmatively opt into a program to receive information and condi-
tional offers of admission from nonprofit colleges, scholarship organ-
ization and government agencies where they third party contractor does
not disclose their personally identifiable information.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. of the bill amends Education Law 2-D to permits students to
opt into a program that enables them to receive information from nonpro-
fit colleges and university and scholarship institutions without
              

disclosing their personally identifiable information. Section 2. Of the
bill sets an immediate effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

High school students in New York State are at a disadvantage. New York
is the only state with an education law that prohibits students from
participating in programs that are proven to increase college going.
Education Law 2-D was Never intended to block access to such programs,
and not privacy purpose is served by prohibiting access to college-going
programs in which student data is not disclosed.

In her 2024-25 Executive Budget Proposal, Governor Hochul is seeking an
amendment to Education Law 2-D because it is so restrictive that one
State agency in New York State cannot share this data with other agen-
cies including SONY, CUNY and the Higher Education Services Corporation.
The Governor is seeking her amendment to enable more New York high
school students to be able to automatically enroll in our state colleges
and universities if they are in the top ten percent of their class.

We are seeking this amendment to enable students to proactively opt-into
receive information and conditional offers of admission from nonprofit
colleges, scholarship programs and government agencies. Since 1972,
colleges around the country have relied on College Board's Student
Search Service. ("Search") to identify and communicate with students who
may be a good fit for their programs. For decades, Search played a key
role in the college going journeys of New York students.  But because of
Education Law 2-0, students taking PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10 and SAT on a
school day are no longer able to opt-in to Search.

In 2023, College Board created "Connections," which plays a similar role
in matching students to colleges and scholarship organizations but is
different in one key respect - it does not include any disclosure of
student data to those colleges or scholarship programs.

Yet, Connections is not available in New York. And it won't be available
until Education Law 2-D is amended.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.