FERPA, HB 3/SB 2, and the Dangerous Erosion of Student Privacy and Liberty
WARNING to Private and Homeschool Families: The Data Trap will be Set
If you think the Education Savings Account (ESA)/Voucher programs in Texas—pushed through HB 3 and SB 2—are just “school choice,” think again.
They are the bait. The trap is the data collection system your child will be sucked into.
The moment you accept government funding—even if it’s just a few thousand dollars through the Comptroller’s office—you voluntarily submit your private or homeschooled child into the state’s data tracking system, and from there, into the federal government’s interoperable database infrastructure.
The Mechanism: College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR)
Under Texas law—codified in HB 3 and SB 2—ALL students who take public funds through an ESA must be tracked and reported through CCMR indicators. This includes:
Nationally norm-referenced test results (mandated annually)
Postsecondary enrollment intentions
Career and military interest data
Demographics and other personally identifiable information (PII)
These reports mirror what is collected in the public school system and are required to be submitted to the Texas Comptroller, who manages the ESA program.
SOURCE: HB 3 Fiscal Note (2023) – “The Comptroller would adopt rules for collecting demographic information and student performance results for ESA participants.”
The Outcome: Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS)
Once collected, this student-level data feeds directly into the Texas SLDS, which was established with federal grant money through the U.S. Department of Education. The SLDS:
Assigns unique, lifelong student identifiers
Tracks K–12 to workforce outcomes
Is designed to be interoperable with other state and federal databases
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education SLDS Grant Program – “Grantees are expected to create interoperable systems that connect K–12, postsecondary, workforce, and other data sources.”
How the Federal Government Gets Access: ESSA Mandates
Through the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states are required to:
Report student performance and progress by subgroup (which requires detailed, identifiable data)
Align K–12 standards with workforce and postsecondary expectations
Share data to improve program performance and “educational equity”
Under ESSA, Title I and Title IV provisions grant federal authority to track student data beyond public schools, especially when public funds are used in any capacity.
SOURCE: ESSA Section 1111(g)(2)(D) – States must describe how they will “develop and implement a statewide accountability system” using student-level indicators of academic and career readiness.
SOURCE: ESSA Section 9212 – Funds allocated to “improve statewide data systems.”
What You Lose: Autonomy, Privacy, and True Educational Freedom
The moment you enter the ESA system:
Your homeschool or private school student is no longer invisible to the state.
Your child’s data becomes part of a permanent government record.
You forfeit the parental right to control your child’s personal information.
And make no mistake: once your child is in the system, there is no off-ramp.
This is about control, not education.
“School Choice” Is Not Freedom When It’s Government Regulated
The true essence of homeschooling and private education is freedom—from state standards, from federal testing, and from the centralization of your child’s future into a data-driven, career-aligned system.
But HB 3 and SB 2 erase that freedom. The ESA program turns every private and homeschool student into a government-tracked commodity, profiled for workforce alignment, military recruitment, or higher Ed funding decisions.
Texas House Bill 3 (HB 3) and Senate Bill 2 (SB 2) expand and institutionalize the state’s data tracking systems through mandated College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) indicators. These indicators form the foundation of statewide student profiling, linking a child’s academic performance to future career pathways, military enlistment, or postsecondary plans—whether the child or parent agrees or not.
This turns children into commodities for predictive analytics, which are increasingly used by ed-tech companies and labor market forecasters to predict behaviors, assign career tracks, and even determine employability. It is a centralized, cradle-to-career surveillance infrastructure—and it begins in your child’s classroom.
Do you think the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects your child’s private educational data? Think again.
Contrary to popular belief, FERPA does not prevent schools, public or private from collecting, storing, and sharing your child’s personal data without your consent. In fact, the law includes numerous exceptions and loopholes that leave the door wide open for data mining, third-party access, and long-term surveillance of your child—often under the radar of parental knowledge or approval.
Here are just a few examples of how FERPA fails:
Law Enforcement Loophole
FERPA explicitly states that “law enforcement unit records” are not considered education records and therefore not subject to FERPA’s protections. That means if a law enforcement officer or school resource officer collects or creates a record for a law enforcement purpose, you—the parent—have no guaranteed right to access it, and it can be shared with third parties without your consent.
Meanwhile, if educational records are shared with law enforcement, they still technically fall under FERPA—but only on paper. In practice, this creates a gray area where data can easily be redistributed without real safeguards.
Welfare Agencies and Tribal Organizations
Schools are allowed to disclose personally identifiable information (PII) from your child’s education records to child welfare agencies or tribal organizations without your consent, and without any formal written agreement. There is no federal requirement for schools to even track these disclosures. That means there is no paper trail and no accountability for where your child’s data ends up.
Third-Party Contractors and “School Officials”
FERPA allows schools to outsource data handling to third-party contractors, consultants, and private companies—as long as those parties are considered “school officials” with a so-called legitimate educational interest. These third parties are often education technology vendors, testing companies, or behavioral intervention consultants—many of which have financial incentives tied to data collection and predictive analytics.
Worse, these outside parties can collect, analyze, and even redistribute your child’s data under the pretense of promoting “school safety,” evaluating “effectiveness,” or meeting state and federal mandates. All of this happens without your permission and is perfectly legal under FERPA.
SOURCE: https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/frequently-asked-questions
Observational Data Isn’t Protected
Even if a school official gains knowledge about your child during school hours, that information is not protected under FERPA if it isn’t part of an official education record. For example, a teacher or administrator can share their personal observations with outside organizations unless those observations are tied to a documented disciplinary action or official academic decision.
The Real Danger: From Education to Social Control
This shift isn't about “education” in the traditional sense. It’s about behavioral modification, workforce alignment, and control.
By combining weak federal privacy laws like FERPA with sweeping state-level government regulated school choice legislation like those in HB 3 and SB 2, we are watching the death of educational freedom and individual liberty. Parents are being cut out of the loop. Students are being sorted and tracked like products in a factory.
And all of it is being done under the banner of "opportunity," "choice," and "readiness."
What You Can Do
Push back and demand they STOP all state-level education bills like HB 3 and SB 2 that enable access to private and homeschools with this data-driven agenda.
Demand transparency in how your child’s data is collected, used, and shared.
Refuse College and Career Readiness assessments where possible.
Educate others about the loopholes in FERPA and the real implications of these “readiness” metrics.
This is not a partisan issue. This is a human rights issue. The freedom of America’s children should not be up for negotiation in a data marketplace.