Feds investigate Mass. school district over student risk behavior survey
The Trump administration is investigating Burlington Public Schools over its handling of a "youth risk behavior survey" that asked for "sensitive and private" information.
The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it would look into the school district's administering of the survey, which asked students questions about topics such as drug and alcohol use, sexual encounters and gender identity, the department said in a press release .
The agency claimed Burlington Public Schools "failed to comply with parents' written requests" to opt out of the survey. This may constitute a violation of parental rights under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment , which allows parents to recuse their children from participating in school questionnaires that ask students for certain types of sensitive or private information.
"Parents must be the primary decision-makers in their children's education. The allegations that Burlington violated parents' rights by administering a survey against parents' wishes — and particularly one that is graphic, and downright inappropriate in nature — is unconscionable," U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in the release.
Burlington Superintendent Eric Conti responded to the investigation in a public statement on Monday , saying that the district would comply with the investigation, but that school administrators had already identified issues with how the survey was handled and had taken steps to rectify the problems.
"This is not a new issue, and the District has gone to great lengths to be transparent and forthcoming about the problems, unintentional as they were," Conti wrote.
Issues with the survey
Federal education officials characterized some of the questions in the survey as being "sexually explicit in nature," but did not immediately respond to a request for comment on which questions it deemed as such on Tuesday afternoon.
The federal education department shared portions of the survey uploaded by the Massachusetts Family Institute, a local right-wing, "pro-family" political advocacy organization. The screenshots show questions about students' gender identity, sexual orientation, alcohol and drug use and exposure to sexual violence.
Conti's statement did not address accusations about the inappropriateness of the survey questions, but went into detail regarding how the district has responded to complaints about the survey.
"The School District also previously emailed all families acknowledging that errors and mistakes did occur and that the School District recognized the critical importance of having clear communication with families, especially regarding parents and students' rights to opt-out of such surveys," Conti wrote.
The district previously acknowledged that it was able to confirm five instances in which students whose parents had opted them out of taking the survey "were allowed inadvertently to participate," the superintendent said.
Since then, the school district has terminated its contract with the company that drafted the survey. And the Burlington School Committee voted that no new student surveys will be administered until the committee creates and approves a new student survey policy, Conti said.
The survey and its administration process also have been reviewed by an outside consultant, who issued a list of recommended actions for the district, the superintendent said.
These issues were discussed at length at public meetings and all relevant documents have been shared with families on the school's website.
"The Burlington Public Schools looks forward to resolving this matter with the federal government and to implementing the forthcoming amended policies that continue the goal of improving the protection of all students' rights," Conti wrote.
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