SF 740

1st Engrossment - 89th Legislature (2015 - 2016) Posted on 08/24/2015 03:33pm

A bill for an act
relating to education; requiring school districts to contract with student
information system vendors able to seamlessly transfer the records of students
with disabilities; amending Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 125A.085;
proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 125A.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

new text begin [125A.083] STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS; TRANSFERRING
RECORDS.
new text end

new text begin To efficiently and effectively meet federal and state compliance and accountability
requirements using an online case management reporting system, school districts may
contract only with a student information system vendor employing a universal filing
system that is compatible with the online system for compliance reporting under section
125A.085 beginning in the 2018-2019 school year and later. A district's universal
filing system under this section must facilitate the seamless transfer of student records
for a student with disabilities who transfers between school districts, including records
containing the student's evaluation report, service plan, and other due process forms and
information, regardless of what filing system any one district uses.
new text end

new text begin EFFECTIVE DATE. new text end

new text begin This section is effective the day following final enactment
and applies to all district contracts with student information system vendors entered into
or modified after that date.
new text end

Sec. 2.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 125A.085, is amended to read:

125A.085 ONLINE REPORTING OF REQUIRED DATA.

(a) To ensure a strong focus on outcomes for children with disabilities informs
federal and state compliance and accountability requirements and to increase opportunities
for special educators and related-services providers to focus on teaching children with
disabilities, the commissioner must customize a streamlined, user-friendly statewide
online system, with a single model online form, for effectively and efficiently collecting
and reporting required special education-related data to individuals with a legitimate
educational interest and who are authorized by law to access the data.

(b) The commissioner must consult with qualified experts, including information
technology specialists, licensed special education teachers and directors of special
education, related-services providers, third-party vendors, a designee of the commissioner
of human services, parents of children with disabilities, representatives of advocacy groups
representing children with disabilities, and representatives of school districts and special
education cooperatives on integrating, field testing, customizing, and sustaining this simple,
easily accessible, efficient, and effective online data system for uniform statewide reporting
of required due process compliance data. Among other outcomes, the system must:

(1) reduce special education teachers' paperwork burden and thereby increase the
teachers' opportunities to focus on teaching children;

(2) to the extent authorized by chapter 13 or other applicable state or federal law
governing access to and dissemination of educational records, provide for efficiently
and effectively transmitting the records of all transferring children with disabilities,
including highly mobile and homeless children with disabilities, among others, and avoid
fragmented service delivery;

(3) address language and other barriers and disparities that prevent parents from
understanding and communicating information about the needs of their children with
disabilities; and

(4) help continuously improve the interface among the online systems serving
children with disabilities in order to maintain and reinforce the children's ability to learn.

(c) The commissioner must use the federal Office of Special Education Programs
model forms for the (1) individualized education program, (2) notice of procedural
safeguards, and (3) prior written notice that are consistent with Part B of IDEA to integrate
and customize a state-sponsored universal special education online case management
system, consistent with the requirements of state law and this section for customizing a
statewide online reporting system. The commissioner must use a request for proposal
process to contract for the technology and software needed for customizing the online
system in order for the system to be fully functional, consistent with the requirements of
this section. This online system must be made available to school districts without charge
beginning in the 2015-2016 school year. For the 2015-2016 deleted text begin through 2017-2018 deleted text end new text begin and later
new text end school years, school districts may use this online system or may contract with an outside
vendor for compliance reporting. deleted text begin Beginning in the 2018-2019 school year and later,
school districts must use this online system for compliance reporting.
deleted text end

(d) All data on individuals maintained in the statewide reporting system are
classified as provided in chapter 13 or other applicable state or federal law. An authorized
individual's ability to enter, update, or access data must be limited through the use of
role-based access codes corresponding to that individual's official duties or training level,
and the statutory authorization that grants access for a particular purpose. Any action
in which data in the system are entered, updated, accessed, or shared or disseminated
outside of the system must be recorded in an audit trail. The audit trail must identify the
specific user responsible for the action, the date and time the action occurred, and the
purpose for the action. Data contained in the audit trail maintain the same classification
as the underlying data affected by the action, provided the responsible authority makes
the data available to a student or the student's parent upon request, and the responsible
authority may access the data to audit the system's user activity and security safeguards.
Before entering data on a student, the responsible authority must provide the student or the
student's parent written notice of the data practices rights and responsibilities required
by this section and a reasonable opportunity to refuse consent to have the student's data
included in the system. Upon receiving the student or the student's parent written refusal
to consent, the school district must not enter data on that student into the system and must
delete any existing data on that student currently in the system.

(e) Consistent with this section, the commissioner must establish a public Internet
Web interface to provide information to educators, parents, and the public about the form
and content of required special education reports, to respond to queries from educators,
parents, and the public about specific aspects of special education reports and reporting,
and to use the information garnered from the interface to streamline and revise special
education reporting on the online system under this section. The public Internet Web
interface must have a prominently linked page describing the rights and responsibilities
of students and parents whose data are included in the statewide reporting system, and
include information on the data practices rights of students and parents provided by this
section and a form students or parents may use to refuse consent to have a student's data
included in the system. The public Internet Web interface must not provide access to the
educational records of any individual child.

(f) The commissioner annually by February 1 must submit to the legislature a report
on the status, recent changes, and sustainability of the online system under this section.