(The Center Square) – A Washington state bill would exempt certain public employee and student information from disclosure under state open records laws, a move proponents argue is necessary to protect individuals’ privacy but critics say could damage transparency.
Washington state administers a Healthy Youth Survey every two years to students in sixth through twelfth grade, which asks questions regarding matter such as substance use, food consumption, physical activity and mental health.
Senate Bill 6049 sponsored by Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Auburn, at the request of the state Office Financial Management would make those surveys exempt from public disclosure.
While the responses to the Health Youth Survey are anonymous, Wilson told the Senate State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections at the bill’s Jan. 30 public hearing that it is possible for someone to “arrive at a student’s identity using known information and working together with what we know is possible right now with technology.”
While several high school students testifying at the public hearing emphasized the bill’s role in concealing identities around school surveys, SB 6049 also exempts an employees name and personally identifying information from disclosure “if the employee has provided a sworn statement that the employee or a dependent of the employee is a survivor of a hate crime.”
They must also notify their workplace why they have a reason to suspect that they might be a victim of another hate crime.
OFM Legislative Affairs Director Sheri Sawyer told the committee at the bill’s public hearing that “public agencies rely on our surveys, interviews and other volunteer feedback to improve services and strengthen workplace practices to make more equitable and data informed decisions.”
Some individuals “face a real risk that their information could later become public through a records request, even when names are removed,” she added. “With today’s technology, especially AI and advanced data matching, it can make it possible to identify those individuals based on small population groups, job roles or combination of responses.
“The result of this is that our employees and students are less or more reluctant to actually take the survey because they don’t feel safe,” Sawyer said. “This proposal creates a narrow, common sense exemption for voluntary responses, and just as important, it still allows for the release of anonymized or aggregate, aggregated results, so transparency and accountability remain intact.
However Conservative Ladies of Washington Founder Julie Barrett wrote in a statement to The Center Square that “student privacy matters, but SB 6049 isn’t narrowly tailored to that purpose.”
“It’s a broad expansion of what agencies can hide, and it’s being advanced without any evidence of a problem that needs solving,” the statement said. “When the Office of Financial Management requests a bill that increases government secrecy, the public should ask why. These are public employees, and parents depend on access to information when something goes wrong at school. We must protect kids without weakening transparency.”
The Center Square also reached out to the Washington Coalition for Open Government, which declined to comment on the bill.
SB 6049 is scheduled for committee action at its Feb. 3 meeting.
