School Districts Are Prohibited From Collecting Social Security Numbers
Published: April 5, 2017
Effective Jan. 1, 2017, school districts, county offices of education and charter schools are prohibited from collecting or soliciting social security numbers or the last four digits of social security numbers from students or their parents or guardians unless otherwise required to do so by state or federal law. The Legislature passed Assembly Bill No. 2097 last year, which modified Education Code section 56601 and added Education Code section 49076.7, to generally prohibit the collection or solicitation of social security numbers from students for whatever purpose in response to the data privacy risks students face and the prevalence of Social Security numbers being the target of identity theft crimes.
As part of the new law, the Superintendent of Public Instruction will phase in the use of student identification numbers, instead of social security numbers, beginning with the 2017-2018 fiscal year and phased in over the next two years.
CSBA has previously advised school districts not to collect a student’s or a student’s parent’s social security number because the information is unnecessary to establish residency in a district and may unlawfully discourage undocumented students, or students of undocumented parents, from enrolling. School districts and county offices of education should be aware that beginning this year, state law prohibits the collection or solicitation of social security numbers even voluntarily, unless otherwise required to do so by state or federal law.
School districts and county offices of education should review and update enrollment forms and practices to ensure compliance with laws regarding undocumented students and state law under Education Code sections 56601 and 49076.7.
A link to Assembly Bill No. 2097 is available here: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2097