Message from Ann Marie Bandfield

See related article – https://granitegrok.com/blog/2023/02/mental-health-data-on-children-is-leaving-schools-without-parental-knowledge-or-consent

Call to Action: Sample email to send to Senators given below…

NH schools are collecting mental health information on students. Some of this sensitive data is shared with Keene State BHII where a report is generated and then sent on to the federal government. The feds sent New Hampshire SAMHSA grant money several years ago to begin the national MTSS-B program in our schools. The Multi Tiered System of Support is a 3 tiered mental health program that was implemented with federal funds. Now it appears as if this program will need $1 million dollars in state funds to continue. 

In order to report on this program, Keene State-BHII collects the mental health of students, produces a report, then gives that report to the federal government. 

I currently have a 91-a Right to Know Request out to the NH Dept of Ed and Keene State BHII to determine who else has access to this sensitive information. 

Currently there is a Bill in the NH Senate Health and Human services Committee to spend $1 MILLION dollars to renew the MTSS-B program in NH. I opposed this Bill SB265 because of the data collection and sharing that is going on without informed consent by parents. 

Obama did gut one one of the strictest student privacy laws when he was in office, but any research conducted on children should be done with informed consent. Not to mention, school counselors follow a code of ethics that requires informed consent before they share this data. By sharing it with Keene State, they have alerted me that they are concerned about losing their license. CAN YOU PLEASE CONTACT the NH SENATE AND TELL THEM TO ITL SB265. Tell them that sharing a student’s PRIVATE and PERSONAL mental health information with any organization should be done ethically.  Parents should be informed and consent!!!

One of my other concerns was, what if there is a data breach? What happens? As you can see from this article, that has already happened and parents have NOT been notified. 

I’m also attaching the data privacy agreement that you can read for yourself. 

PLEASE SHARE THIS REQUEST!!

Senators New Hampshire : Senators@leg.state.nh.us

Sample email

Dear Senators, 

I am writing to you today to ask you to ITL SB265. SB265 makes an appropriation for the multi-tiered system of support for children’s mental health in our schools.  After hearing how school administrators are sharing private mental health data on our children without informed consent by parents, I cannot support this expenditure. 

School administrators should be upholding ethical standards on research and the privacy rights of our children. What happens if there is a breach of data? You can see from this article that parents are not notified!  The privacy agreement that Keene State/BHII has with our local schools states that personally identifiable information is collected on our children. It does not indicate where that information is sent, and it does not state that parents will be immediately notified if there is a data breach. 

This is outrageous, and it is up to you to protect the privacy rights of our children. 

I ask you to KILL SB265 by voting Inexpedient to Legislate on SB265 (ITL) 

Thank you