S.B. 88 School Technology Amendments: transcript

I hope you didn't need those papers. Uh, thank you. You know how they fall out of the pocket in the front of your binder Murphy's Law. Yep. They stay there until you need them. I, uh, Thank you for having me and I appreciate you accommodating an early presentation. Uh, Mr. Chair. Um, so briefly here, uh, you know, I'm not the only one working on, uh, devices in schools, right? Uh, my floor sponsor and your vice chair, uh, Representative Defay is also working on that issue. Uh, uh, I know there are o others too. I support all of those bills. I think that we've swung the pendulum too far in the direction of having technology do instruction, and we're the kids are spending a bit too much screen time in schools, but that, that's my preference, uh, as a parent and a policy maker. But my policy approach here is just a transparency one. So this does two things. It requires that, uh, schools provide parents an ability to see what their children are visiting on school computers and, uh, at parent requests, it would require, um, school districts and charter schools to, uh, restrict access to like a, a white list of websites that students could visit rather than a black list of websites that the students can't visit. Uh, and that's what the bill does. It's a two pager, so it's easy to read.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I do appreciate a short bill from Senator Fillmore, so thank you for that. I'm not saying they're all long, I'm just saying some of them are My last one. Oh man. Yes. Anyway, um, and I appreciate this Bill. I, I was, uh, really happy to see it that we were gonna discuss it today. I just, we've had some conversation about this bill and I just wanted to make sure that it was clear on the public record that does this parent ability to see what the child has been seeing on the computer extend into being able to see within the databases. Uh, the, the language is written here. It is, it allows a parent to review the activity of the parent students, students on school managed devices. Okay. So are we saying that the databases would have to comply with that Then? If that is,

uh, the activity on a stool device? Yes. Although this would not be, uh, like this would not be a database tool, right? It would just be separate software on the computer that allows parents to go in and monitor what students are seeing.

Okay. So, and to get into the databases, you do have to like log in. So I, I'd be interested to see if that's actually going to be able to cross that barrier or not, or if it's just gonna be other things that are maybe just generally on web.

I think we'll see if there, Mr. Chair, apologies for that. I think we'll see if there are, you know, how, what the implementation of this is like.

Okay. Thank you. Alright, thank you. Um, you mentioned, uh, a number of bills that are in the, uh, digital technology space, in this technology space. Um, I know a good vice chair here is your co-sponsor, but also is, uh, running some legislation in a similar space. Wondered if you might comment on some of the places where there is, uh, unique aspects of this bill that, uh, would, would be important for the committee to know. Yeah,

I, again, Mr. Chair, this is just a transparency bill. Uh, I, I haven't been notified by LRGC that any coordinating clauses are necessary. You know, the vice chair's bill and my bill tackle the same problem, but just in different ways. So I think they're totally compatible. Um, you know, uh, what her bill is great in the limits that it places on there, but whatever those limits are, parents should still have full access to be able to see what their parents are, what their children are looking at, and how they're using the computer at school. Uh, and to be able to, uh, request further limitations on, uh, you know, where those student use computers can go on the internet when their child is the one using it.

Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just looking at the fiscal note, um, is zero, but it could cost LEAs approximately $3 a month for the software and zero to $27 a year, um, for each device. So for a a large district that could be, you know, a million dollars. Can you respond to that Mr. Chair?

Yes, go ahead. Yeah, I just point out it may or could, depending on so many factors, it's my understanding after tahi with school districts that school districts already have this capability so that, uh, uh, you know, and even back when I was such an administrator, you know, in 2005, way back in the stone age, even then we had the ability to, uh, you know, remote into students' computers and see what they were looking at and, and take a, a quick look at a log about where they visited. So this technology is there, it's fully, uh, ready and capable. Uh, I imagine that the cost to, to local school districts would actually, in reality be close to nothing because districts are already, already have that capability in-house. And to extend it to parents is not an additional cost. And I have not heard from a single school district that they are concerned about the cost.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I actually have the same question, so I wanna ask that one. Um, I, I might circle back that one in just a second, but are there any concerns with data privacy? Again, like, Like if there's a place that a parent can go and find this, can someone else find the student's viewing history? Uh,

No. I have not heard any concerns about data privacy.

Okay. I, I, I will just say I, I love this concept. Um, I ran a bill for library transparency a couple of sessions ago and we actually gave some money to that that should bring down the cost of the gateway. And so I think that cost will be down a little bit based off of that bill.

Yes. Um, I am, I'm happy to do this. And, um, something that I care a lot about is parents' rights and, you know, being the main, um, responsible person over our children's education. How can we do that unless we see, you know, exactly what they're accessing and, and having that say. So I appreciate the bill sponsor for bringing this bill to us, and happy to move it forward.

Thank you. I told him. Alright, representatives.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, in my presentation on the cell phone bill, I talked about some other technology school, uh, bills that are, uh, be presented this session. I think this is the one that's coming from the Senate. There are two, uh, much more substantial bills coming from the house. Um, I'm taking something of a minimalist approach here. Um, you know, as, as technology became available, I think that the legislature saw this as a real opportunity. Um, and not only a legislature, but education, and not to mention technology companies, but this could be a really great opportunity to take our best educators and leverage their labor using technology so that it impacts more and more people. Uh, and so we launched the digital teaching and learning program. We put scads of money into buying new technology and computers to the point where it's probably not every student in the state that has access to, um, you know, a Chromebook, uh, during the school day. But it is awfully close now to every student in school having a Chromebook as Juab or a computer as part of the, the regular task of learning. And I think there's growing awareness just like there is with cell phones, that that pendulum has swung too far. And we just need to get that, uh, in the right balance. And this Bill's approach to that is about transparency, um, and parental involvement and control. So, um, this bill does two things. Um, one, it requires districts to have a, um, a monitoring system whereby parents can look in and see how much time have my kids spent on the screen, what websites have they visited? Um, and, uh, it's just openness and transparency. You're using technology in classrooms. Just let parents see what that technology is doing. And then second, it requires at the parent request that the school district implement a white list of available websites rather than a blacklist of unavailable websites. That's what the bill is. Very good. Does that conclude your pre? Uh, I suppose, except for one thing, I had originally drafted this to say that every computer should have a white list. And I got a little bit of pushback on districts there that, that they would rather do it on a piecemeal as requested basis. So I made that change at their suggestion. Um, I was surprised by that. I thought it would be easier to do everybody. Um, but, uh, they requested it to be done at parents' request, which, uh, is, was fine with me. And so I've made that change.

Thank you. Um, Mr. Chair, I'm looking at the fiscal note and it says that this is zero. Um, as somebody who has monitored technology in a school, um, do you think this is going to increase the burden of that for school districts?

Mr. Chair? I, I'd point the senator to the section on local government. Of course, this fiscal note says what it will cost the state, which is nothing. The fiscal analyst estimate of this is that it might cost about $3 per month per device at, at an LEA level. I doubt that's true. And the reason I doubt that's true is because, uh, as, um, as I was talking with, um, with school districts about this, um, I, I don't, wouldn't wanna say that everyone said that. 'cause I'm sure not every school district, and probably not every charter school does this, but a lot of districts and charter schools already have this parent access portal so they can see, you know, what their computers are doing. So on the one hand, that cost is already baked in and on on, on the other hand, I Juab, as this goes out to market and competition, if there is such a thing, I think that that cost is likely overestimated. But, um, I understand that the LFA is using the best information that they had available. Um, but at some level, yes, this does require districts to spend money on, uh, openness and transparency.

Thank you. Um, we are asking our school districts to cut their budgets by 5%, and then we're asking them to do more with less. So, um, I don't know what the school districts are going to be, uh, voting on this as, but, uh, right now I am going to be a no because we are asking our school districts to do more with less. So thank you.

Okay. My name is Ali Terry, and I am here today as a parent and as a rep representative of the Child First Policy Center. I want to start with a pers with a personal note. I've struggled firsthand with this exact issue, trying to understand and manage what my own children can access on their school issued computers. Even as an engaged parent, it hasn't always been clear what Manti monitoring tools exist, what filtering is actually working, or what options I can request from the school. That experience is what brings me here today, requiring parent accessible monitoring and allowing parents to request stronger content. Filtering are important steps towards transparency and parental involvement, and we appreciate the sponsor's work on this. Bill. As the bill moves forward, we see an opportunity to strengthen SB 88 with a few targeted additions, and we would welcome the chance to work collaboratively with the sponsor. First. The bill does not include a clear requirement to ensure parents are notified that monitoring tools exist or that stronger filtering can be requested. Many parents only learn this after a problem occurs. Second, SB 88 lacks clear enforcement or accountability if a school or school board does not fully implement the policy, which can lead to uneven compliance across districts. Third, we regularly hear from parents who notice discrepancies between their CHI Child's device activity and what School monitoring Systems report, including access to content parents believed was restricted. Even with these concerns, SB 88 plays an important role and works best alongside the SAFE Act, which addresses vendor accountability and enforcement. Together these measures create a stronger framework to protect students For these reasons, we urge passage of SB 88 and look forward to working with the sponsor to ensure its function, it functions as intended for families. And I also would like to add that I originally brought up this idea of whitelisting to my, um, kids' school district. And, and I think I've learned so much through this whole process, but whitelist, I think, is much more difficult with filtering software than what it seems it would be. And that's perhaps why the, the superintendents want it to be, yeah, the blacklist.

Uh, I move, uh, that we favorably recommend Senate Bill 88. So the, uh, motion is to favorably recommend Senate Bill 88 School Technology Amendments.

Thank you Mr. President. Last week when, uh, we had the second reading debate on Senate Bill 69, which was the cell phone default, uh, we got questions on this committee about other school technology and I mentioned that there would be several bills that would run on that topic this session, and that I had one. And this is it. Uh, I also mentioned, and this is a, uh, I think a pretty minor bill that really is just related to, uh, parental transparency. So this bill just, uh, adds two requirements to an existing required policy for schools. And that is that at parent request, uh, schools will use a specific content filtering system to create a white list of allowed websites rather than I have a black list of disallowed websites. And then it also requires the use of a parent and monitoring system so that parents can see what websites their kids are viewing and find out how much time their kids are spending on these school provided screens at school.

Thank you. I, uh, move that Senate Bill 88. Be read a third time. Thank

Yeah. Mr. President, I appreciate, uh, this coming up. We talked about this, uh, at some level yesterday. It's a, this is really a transparency and access bill that would require, uh, local education agencies to provide parents with a portal so that they could see what websites their kids are visiting, how much time they're spending on screens on school, provided technology, and then at parents' requests. And this was a request of the School Board's Association to make this at the parents' request to, uh, to make it so that there's like a, an approved list of websites that students can visit rather than a restricted list of websites that they cannot visit. Thank you for the presentation again. We heard the bill yesterday seeing no discussion. Going to you for a motion on the bill.

Thank you. I move that Senate Bill 88 Pass. Thank you. And the question is,

Senator Rebe. Thank You Mr. President. Thank you Mr. President. Uh, I appreciate the work that's been doing on keeping our school safe, but when you look at the fiscal note of this bill, there is zero. And, um, this is one of the examples of how we are increasingly asking our schools to do more with no money. And so providing these kind of services, although, um, are important, it is an unfunded request. And, uh, I'm gonna be voting, no, not because I don't like the policy, but because it's unfunded. Thank you.

of the president. Mad Reading Clerk Senate Bill 88 School Technology Amendments by Senator Fillmore. This bill was heard in education with the vote of 8 2 5. The house sponsors Representative Defay, Representative Defay.

Thank you Mr. Speaker Pro Tem. This Bill, um, is a, a one of a suite of bills that we have, uh, brought forward this session to address the use of technology in classrooms. And this specific bill does a couple of things. First of all, it requires for LEAs to give per parents access to, um, their students', um, web devices and monitoring of their computers so they can see what websites they're on and how long they're spending on those computers. It also at the parents' request requires an LEA, um, to provide a white list of available websites rather than a blacklist. Um, and this is just to help with par with transparency and help parents understand what it is that their par that their students are doing during school time. See how much screen time is being used. And just for your information, many school districts are already moving in this direction or already have, they have, um, tools that parents can use to log on and access and see what their students are seeing. Um, and so this is just to help continue moving in that direction. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

I'll waive Summation is waived.