Dear Mr. xxxxxxxxxx,

 

Thanks very much for writing me your thoughts regarding Senate Bill 878, sponsored by Senator Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton).
I greatly appreciate you taking time to share your views on this piece of legislation which would require performance accountability for public schools by improving and strengthening access to quality data.

As you may know, SB 878 does not change the current process regarding how the Department of Education provides data to researchers. It simply formalizes procedures for accessing and reporting data pursuant to the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Before providing student data to researchers, DOE strips personally identifiable information from student data and assigns a random, annonymized ID to each student record.

On Wednesday, April 10, 2013, the Florida Senate passed SB 878, which I supported. From there, it was sent to the Florida House for a vote. However, on the floor of the House, the bill was amended and now it is currently waiting to be heard on the Senate floor.   As Senate President, I am only able to vote on legislation once a bill reaches the Senate floor. I will certainly keep your views in mind as this bill is read as amended on the floor for a vote.

 
Again, thanks for writing. Your comments, criticisms and suggestions make me a better Senator.

Respectfully,
Don Gaetz