By Caitlin D. Baron
AB 2723 (Irwin), as amended July 3, 2024, amends sections 10860, 10861, 10863, 10864, 10866, and 10870 of, and repeals and adds Article 1 (commencing with section 10850) of Chapter 8.5 of Part 7 of Division 1 of Title 1 of, the Education Code. This bill clarifies and makes technical changes to the Cradle-to-Career (C2C) Data System Act. It makes “technical or clean-up change[s]” including that C2C system will pass along Information Practices Act (IPA) requests to the data providers, stipulates compliance with the federal Privacy Act of 1974 and Information Practices Act (IPA) of 1977, and sets an operational date of July 27, 2026.
The C2C data system will serve as an “aggregator of state-level education and workforce data” to allow students, researchers, and the public to review data, including financial aid, student demographics, and graduation and salary outcomes. (AB 2723 Assembly Floor Analysis.) Lawmakers were concerned about how to balance the publishing of data while maintaining personal information (PI) data and how to comply with the Information Practices Act and requests for records. This bill clarifies that any requests sent to the C2C system will be passed along to the agency that provides this information and that individuals will not have the right under the IPA to receive notice that a record has been made or to request any personal information contained therein.
Supporters of the measure argue that this is necessary not to burden the system and to ensure that any requests are answered appropriately, and that PI data is not released to the wrong individuals. The C2C system is not authorized to modify or correct any records, so any correct requests should be made to the data partner providing this data. Opponents argue that C2C will own and maintain this data, which is the type of behavior the IPA was designed to prevent. The rights to consent, be notified, inspect, and correct are being prevented by designating the C2C system as a “data maintainer” instead of a “data collector.” They request a compromise of a consent form at the time of enrollment to inform students and a privacy form that C2C can forward to the data partners to make changes.
Governor Newsom signed AB 2723 on September 27, 2024 (Chapter 736, Statutes of 2024). It takes effect immediately.