Panorama Surveys in HSE Schools
In recent months we have been hearing about Panorama Surveys that are being administered in our HSE School district. In the past, parents were not allowed to review questions their kids were being asked about Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Parents especially did not understand how this information was being collected and how this data was being used for intervention in their children’s mental health at our schools.
Panorama Education is a analytical software and services company out of Boston, Massachusetts with an investor backing of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg. They are signing contracts across the country with school boards who then provide the company with data collected from your children. Some of the answers to these surveys are the children’s intimate feelings being stored for data interpretation.
Many school boards are signing these contracts giving Panorama Education the rights to be the “social and emotional screener.” The “psychometrics” on our students are being measured by invasive questions from surveys that ask such things as whether they feel “sad” or “gender fluid.”
The Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA) is supposed to protect the data collected from outside vendors. School districts are skirting this law by deeming Panorama as a “school official.” This is being allowed, absent parents’/guardians’ consent. It’s then providing a backdoor to these feelings, where Big Tech can be involved in our K-12 schools, and is then referred to as new “growth projects.”
Big Tech can now be involved with the backing of our school boards. HSE School district has recently rearranged their website to include a “Survey” page to claim they are being more transparent. These surveys were originally implemented by the Lilly Grant in 2019 without a lot of transparency. The school district gave excuses that they cannot disclose third-party company information. Subsequently, there are also current links to the questions being asked by grade levels on the HSE website (link below).
An opt-out form is found in another link buried in the “Survey” page. This year the form had to be completed by October 15, 2021 or your child will be given the surveys. All students are automatically assumed they will take the surveys and the schools give the parents an extra step to then require an “opt-out” selection, instead of proactively educating parents and allowing them to decide to “opt-in.”
Adding to the integration of Big Tech into the schools, the current Attorney General, Merrick Garland’s son-in-law has now been disclosed as the founder and president of Panorama Education. This conflict-of-interest and violation of privacy laws put in place has Americans urging the AG to order a ceasefire due to his son-in-law profiting off of the business. Instead, the AG has ordered the FBI to declare parents speaking out at school board meetings “domestic terrorists.”
Next Steps for Parents and Families:
In the meantime, we as parents need to urge our school board to allow an “opt-in” only, and at the same time, keep an eye on money that will run out this year from the Lilly Grant that expires with HSE at the end of the 2021/22 school year. Once the grant funds are no longer covered by Lilly, subsequent funding for these surveys needs to be denied by the school board.
It is ok to have mental health options/counselors in our schools, however, the collecting of data on our kids and their most personal thoughts should not be data mined by these profiting companies. We need to parent our own children and NOT co-parent with the schools!
Link resources for more info:
HSE District’s Panorama Survey Page