Seattle Schools Surveyed Students on Mental Health. Then Parents Discovered the Data Weren't Secure.

Schools across the country are gathering personal information and putting students' privacy at risk.

A mental health survey administered to Seattle-area middle and high schoolers is putting their sensitive personal information at risk, according to a February investigation from The Seattle Times and the education-focused outlet The 74. While parents and schools were sold on the survey as a tool to identify struggling
students, a public records request showed just how invasive many survey questions are.

The survey, called Check Yourself, takes around 12 minutes to complete and asks students about general demographic features, along with questions about their mental health. For example, it asks students, "During the past year, did you ever seriously think about ending your life?" According to The 74, King County, which includes Seattle, has spent more than $21 million on the survey and related mental health supports since 2018.

"We know their school, gender, age on a certain date, grade level, language they speak, their dogs' names, friends' names, race, their unique interests, what sports they play, if they are religious, and anything else they feel like writing in—plus their whole mental health record," Stephanie Hager, a Seattle-area parent, told reporter Linda Jacobson. Hager is part of a group of parents who sought to highlight the survey's security vulnerabilities by successfully obtaining student data through a public records request. Hager says she identified six different students based on the information they provided in the survey and a quick internet search—highlighting just how easily students can be de-anonymized.

Some school officials have echoed these concerns. "We want to proceed with an abundance of caution to not create unnecessary harm," one school administrator wrote in a 2019 report discussing the survey. "A factor that has complicated our efforts in particular is a lack of clarity and guidance around the validity and reliability and vetting of the screening tool. We are unsure if we are being asked to field test a research or diagnostic tool. As such we have concerns about ensuring clear and consistent informed consent."

"It really is causing considerable angst," the school official added.

This isn't the first school district that mishandled sensitive student information. In 2023, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia accidentally released confidential records on around 35,000 students—including whether students were experiencing suicidal thoughts—to a parent who had requested her child's records. Across the nation, school districts have embedded software in school-owned laptops and tablets meant to monitor students for signs of mental health crises. This has led to instances where students have faced intrusive questioning from school staff—or even had police show up at their homes in the middle of the night—for typing words or phrases that ended up being totally innocuous.

In their effort to prevent mental health crises, schools are gathering a staggering amount of personal information—risking students' privacy and security for a nebulous gain to physical safety.

Comments

[Vernon Depner]

the Data Weren't Secure.

NO data are secure. Nowhere. Never.
Be careful what you say or write to your doctors.

[TJJ2000]

That's just a ?blessings? of having Commie Indoctrination Camps for kids.

Did you really buy the Commie BS that only Gov-Guns can teach kids?

[Idaho-Bob]

Don't be surprised when you send your kids to Cesar, they return home as Romans.

[Mickey Rat]

"Stephanie Hager, a Seattle-area parent, told reporter Linda Jacobson. Hager is part of a group of parents who sought to highlight the survey's security vulnerabilities by successfully obtaining student data through a public records request."

What is the problem? Hager was exercising her journalistic rights. We have already established on this site that government information on individuals cannot be kept confidential without violating the Constitution.

[Randy Sax]

I remember these surveys. Me and my buddies put "C" for every answer so we could get out earlier.

[Vernon Depner]

That could someday affect your ability to get a security clearance or insurance.

[Idaho-Bob]

This will go down on your permanent record

[Minadin]

Do mental health surveys / data fall outside of the protections given to other private healthcare information?

[Vernon Depner]

There is no such thing as private information anymore.

[Incunabulum]

If you're talking about HIPPA - it doesn't apply here.

Im

[Spartacus]

Maybe HIPPA doesn't apply, but laws about human subject research certainly do. Was this study ever reviewed and approved by an IRB? I can't imagine one ever reviewing a research protocol like this and approving it.

[Rossami]

It's only human subject research if you're actually doing research - that is, a scientific study trying to find some new principle or fact (or replicate someone else's study). This was a diagnostic survey - that is, an attempt to identify individuals who might have a known condition. The rules about human subject research no more apply to this than they do to your doctor's routine questions during your annual physical.

[Spartacus]

It seems I didn't read the article carefully enough. However, one administrator is quoted as being unsure whether this was a research or a diagnostic tool. Given the uncertainty, it seems like they could have paid more attention to consent and to whether the data collected would become public records (something your doctor's routine questions are not subject to).

[Incunabulum]

Part of what parents should teach their children is don't fill out forms just because the school says so.

[Vernon Depner]

And don't ever have a private conversation with a school administrator without a parent or attorney present. Think of them as cops.

[AT]

Cut first, measure never.

Leftism 101.

[Longtobefree]

Maybe they should just learn how to teach?
From Google's AI:
Key Points:
Accreditation and Rankings: SPS is a highly rated public school district.
Academic Performance: State test scores show that a majority of students are proficient in reading and math.
Parent Concerns: A recent survey revealed that a significant number of parents are concerned about the quality of education offered by SPS, with many citing it as a top reason for considering disenrollment.
Diverse Programs: SPS offers a wide range of programs and extracurricular activities.
Equity Focus: SPS has implemented an equity tiering system to prioritize support for schools in need.

Note that when AI says 'a majority' they are being technical:
According to state test scores, 56% of students are at least proficient in math and 67% in reading. No easy to find definition of what "proficient" means.

[AT]

Academic Performance: State test scores show that a majority of students are proficient in reading and math.
Parent Concerns: A recent survey revealed that a significant number of parents are concerned about the quality of education offered by SPS

lol

SPS: "The numbers show that our students are quite proficient."
Parents: "My teenager can't even SPELL "proficient!!!""

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Privacy, hell. The bigger issue is how constantly asking kids about mental health normalizes crazy.

During the last years of her 2nd grade(!) teaching career, my wife had to ask each kid everyday about their emotional state, as part of an intrusive system to intervene in family behavior. Sure, maybe a few sad situations were improved, but it was part of indoctrinating another generation with the idea that they are fragile emotional cripples that all need counseling, drugs, and most of all a protective nanny state. You know, Democrats.

[Winston in Wonderland]

I really don't understand what legitimate reason an instructional institution has for gathering this information.

But this isn't new. 20 years ago, when my daughters were in high school, we got all kinds of surveys of this ilk. I was a single dad (very rare back then), and got lots of extra "help" 'cuz people with Y chromosomes can't raise girls.

[Rossami]

The argument comes from Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs. That is, you can't focus on more advanced needs like education when more basic needs like food and shelter are in jeopardy.

Since schools 'have a mandate' to do education and since bureaucracies everywhere expand to fill any possible vacumn, the educational bureaucracy inevitably expanded to include assurance of basic needs, the absence of which might interfere with education.

When the expansion was to school lunches, most everyone thought that was a good idea and a reasonably efficient use of resources. When it expanded to breakfasts, a little more intrusive and less efficient (because it requires parental cooperation to get the recipient to school earlier) but let's do it anyway.

When the basic need is physical security, fire escapes and building-to-code = obviously yes. Stopping fights - another obvious yes. Stopping bullying - harder and a lot more subjective. Probably still worth the attempt but recognize that teachers and recess monitors make mistakes and the intervention can sometimes make the problem worse. When the physical security you're trying to offer is from the student's own family, the odds of making it worse go way up. But we made teachers and school nurses into mandatory reporters anyway.

When the basic need is emotional security, the justifications are hazier and the potential adverse consequences even more foreseeable but ... Bureaucratic expansion. If you can sell this need and build a department within the school district helping to 'fix' this problem, you won't have to actually work for a living. And so it goes on...

[Liberty_Belle]

What's a little data-mining among friends, yes ? We promise to be responsible in its usage ... trust us.