A solution to District 97 and District 200’s inability to easily share certain student data may be on the horizon.
Oak Park state Sen. Don Harmon (39th) says he’s working with the two school districts on a solution to a problem plaguing many non-unit school districts in the state. Such districts have been restricted, per the Illinois School Code, from sharing certain student data. D97 and D200 are affected even though they serve the same student population.
Officials from both districts have expressed frustration over the years about that restriction.
Amending the Illinois School Code with new language allowing for greater data sharing in such cases would address that problem, Harmon said, stressing that students’ privacy would not be violated with any new language, which he’s working with the Oak Park districts to come up with. The amended language, he added, would only cover non-unit school districts that serve the same student population.
The real goal, Harmon said, is to improve students’ academic outcomes through better data sharing. Unit school districts don’t have this problem, Harmon noted. For communities like Oak Park and River Forest, which basically serve the same students, such restrictions should be softened, Harmon said.
“Tracking data and accessing grades on how they’re doing when they go from their grammar school to their high school is what we’re really talking about,” Harmon said, adding that he understands the privacy concerns.
“We’re not talking about releasing students’ names. Those concerns are valid. We want to protect students’ privacy. But there is concern as to what is this data going to be used for. Who’s going to have access to it? If it’s for improving outcomes from students, it’s hard to argue against that,” Harmon said.