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Minutes for HB2690 - Committee on Education
Short Title
Requirements for school districts to administer certain tests, questionnaires, surveys and examinations under the student data privacy act.
Minutes Content for Thu, Feb 20, 2020
Chairperson Huebert opened the hearing on HB2690.
Revisor Jason Long gave an overview of the bill. (Attachment 3)
Linda Highland testified as a proponent. She has been concerned about the overuse of tests such as the Communities That Care Youth Surveys. This legislation requires that parents be given an actual copy of the survey prior to offering it to the kids. She has asked many young persons if they remember taking this particular test and all of them did. This test, she believes, is a teaching tool that endangers lifestyles by the very reading of the survey. She stated that the test is given the first time when students are in 6th grade, and every two years after, and that the students are told there are no right or wrong answers. She led the Committee through parts of the test she was concerned about. She noted numbers 46, 47, 48 that offered negative images. Page seven has many references to various kinds of drugs: marijuana, LSD, cocaine, crack, MDMA, glue, aerosol spray cans or inhaled gases, T-Rex, meth, Vicodin, OxyCotin, or Xanax, Valium, Ambien, Ritalin, Adderall, and so on. Highland noted that many of the students that have taken these tests have not been honest and instead filled them out imaginatively. She urged the Committee to support the bill and try and limit the use of this negative test. (Attachment 4) (Attachment 5)
Mary Clare Halpin spoke as a young Kansan in support of this legislation. She most recently took this test several years as a senior in high school. She remembers it clearly. She was taken out of class to take a survey that talked about drugs, personal things about her family and other difficult issues. Speaking with her friends about this, she was amazed that they all remembered it also. It had a big impact. (Attachment 6)
Lisa Heuser spoke in favor of the bill. She strongly believes that parents should have the fundamental right to exercise primary control over the care and upbringing of their children. She remembered getting a survey from her child's class saying the survey would be given but there was no survey attached. Parents have no idea of what their children are being exposed to. (Attachment 7)
Morgan Riat testified as a proponent and stated that he believes this type of survey is a violation of students rights, provides unreliable data, and is costly to administrate. As a young student he did not enjoy taking this test. He was raised in a good household with loving parents and this test was not fun to take, but in the halls at school it became apparent to him, based on the talk around him, that this test is not a reliable survey. He noted that to ask a young student if he is close to his mother is problematic; he mentioned a friend who lost his mother at an early age. Riat argued that if the goal is to help students, an anonymous test might not be the best approach. (Attachment 8)
Written only Proponent testimony:
Barbara Saldivar, Concerned Women for America (Attachment 9)
Nick Reinecker (Attachment 10)
There was a brief discussion.
Chairperson Huebert closed the hearing on HB2690 and adjourned the meeting at 2:45.
