II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1349
To establish a postsecondary student data system.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL27, 2023
Mr. C
ASSIDY(for himself, Ms. WARREN, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. WHITEHOUSE,
Mr. G
RASSLEY, Mr. HICKENLOOPER, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. KAINE, Mr.
T
ILLIS, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. CORNYN, Mr. CASEY, Ms. ERNST, Mr. LUJA´N,
Mr. C
RAMER, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. ROMNEY, and Ms. BALDWIN) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To establish a postsecondary student data system.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘College Transparency 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. POSTSECONDARY STUDENT DATA SYSTEM. 6
Section 132 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 7
U.S.C. 1015a) is amended— 8
(1) by redesignating subsection (l) as subsection 9
(m); and 10
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(2) by inserting after subsection (k) the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(l) P
OSTSECONDARYSTUDENTDATASYSTEM.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 4
‘‘(A) E
STABLISHMENT OF SYSTEM .—Not 5
later than 4 years after the date of enactment 6
of the College Transparency Act, the Commis-7
sioner of the National Center for Education 8
Statistics (referred to in this subsection as the 9
‘Commissioner’) shall develop and maintain a 10
secure and privacy-protected postsecondary stu-11
dent-level data system in order to— 12
‘‘(i) accurately evaluate student en-13
rollment patterns, progression, completion, 14
and postcollegiate outcomes, and higher 15
education costs and financial aid; 16
‘‘(ii) assist with transparency, institu-17
tional improvement, and analysis of Fed-18
eral aid programs; 19
‘‘(iii) provide accurate, complete, and 20
customizable information for students and 21
families making decisions about postsec-22
ondary education; and 23
‘‘(iv) reduce the reporting burden on 24
institutions of higher education, in accord-25
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ance with section 5 of the College Trans-1
parency Act. 2
‘‘(B) A
VOIDING DUPLICATED REPORT -3
ING.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 4
this section, to the extent that another provi-5
sion of this section requires the same reporting 6
or collection of data that is required under this 7
subsection, an institution of higher education, 8
or the Secretary or Commissioner, shall use the 9
reporting or data required for the postsec-10
ondary student data system under this sub-11
section to satisfy both requirements. 12
‘‘(C) D
EVELOPMENT PROCESS .—In devel-13
oping the postsecondary student data system 14
described in this subsection, the Commissioner 15
shall— 16
‘‘(i) focus on the needs of— 17
‘‘(I) users of the data system; 18
and 19
‘‘(II) entities, including institu-20
tions of higher education, reporting to 21
the data system; 22
‘‘(ii) take into consideration, to the 23
extent practicable— 24
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‘‘(I) the guidelines outlined in the 1
U.S. Web Design Standards main-2
tained by the General Services Admin-3
istration and the Digital Services 4
Playbook and TechFAR Handbook for 5
Procuring Digital Services Using 6
Agile Processes of the U.S. Digital 7
Service; and 8
‘‘(II) the relevant successor docu-9
ments or recommendations of such 10
guidelines; 11
‘‘(iii) use modern, relevant privacy- 12
and security-enhancing technology, and en-13
hance and update the data system as nec-14
essary to carry out the purpose of this sub-15
section; 16
‘‘(iv) ensure data privacy and security 17
is consistent with any relevant Federal law 18
relating to privacy or data security, includ-19
ing— 20
‘‘(I) the requirements of sub-21
chapter II of chapter 35 of title 44, 22
United States Code, specifying secu-23
rity categorization under the Federal 24
Information Processing Standards or 25
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any relevant successor of such stand-1
ards; 2
‘‘(II) security requirements that 3
are consistent with the Federal agency 4
responsibilities in section 3554 of title 5
44, United States Code, or any rel-6
evant successor of such responsibil-7
ities; and 8
‘‘(III) security requirements, 9
guidelines, and controls consistent 10
with cybersecurity standards and best 11
practices developed by the National 12
Institute of Standards and Tech-13
nology, including frameworks, con-14
sistent with section 2(c) of the Na-15
tional Institute of Standards and 16
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 272(c)), or 17
any relevant successor of such frame-18
works; 19
‘‘(v) follow Federal data minimization 20
practices to ensure only the minimum 21
amount of data is collected to meet the 22
system’s goals, in accordance with Federal 23
data minimization standards and guide-24
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lines developed by the National Institute of 1
Standards and Technology; and 2
‘‘(vi) provide notice to students out-3
lining the data included in the system and 4
how the data are used. 5
‘‘(2) D
ATA ELEMENTS.— 6
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 4 years 7
after the date of enactment of the College 8
Transparency Act, the Commissioner, in con-9
sultation with the Postsecondary Student Data 10
System Advisory Committee established under 11
subparagraph (B), shall determine— 12
‘‘(i) the data elements to be included 13
in the postsecondary student data system, 14
in accordance with subparagraphs (C) and 15
(D); and 16
‘‘(ii) how to include the data elements 17
required under subparagraph (C), and any 18
additional data elements selected under 19
subparagraph (D), in the postsecondary 20
student data system. 21
‘‘(B) P
OSTSECONDARY STUDENT DATA 22
SYSTEM ADVISORY COMMITTEE .— 23
‘‘(i) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later 24
than 2 years after the date of enactment 25
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of the College Transparency Act, the Com-1
missioner shall establish a Postsecondary 2
Student Data System Advisory Committee 3
(referred to in this subsection as the ‘Advi-4
sory Committee’), whose members shall in-5
clude— 6
‘‘(I) the Chief Privacy Officer of 7
the Department or an official of the 8
Department delegated the duties of 9
overseeing data privacy at the Depart-10
ment; 11
‘‘(II) the Chief Security Officer 12
of the Department or an official of 13
the Department delegated the duties 14
of overseeing data security at the De-15
partment; 16
‘‘(III) representatives of diverse 17
institutions of higher education, which 18
shall include equal representation be-19
tween 2-year and 4-year institutions 20
of higher education, and from public, 21
nonprofit, and proprietary institutions 22
of higher education, including minor-23
ity-serving institutions; 24
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‘‘(IV) representatives from State 1
higher education agencies, entities, 2
bodies, or boards; 3
‘‘(V) representatives of postsec-4
ondary students; 5
‘‘(VI) representatives from rel-6
evant Federal agencies; 7
‘‘(VII) individuals with expertise 8
in data privacy and security; and 9
‘‘(VIII) other stakeholders (in-10
cluding individuals with consumer 11
protection and postsecondary edu-12
cation research). 13
‘‘(ii) R
EQUIREMENTS.—The Commis-14
sioner shall ensure that the Advisory Com-15
mittee— 16
‘‘(I) adheres to all requirements 17
under chapter 10 of title 5, United 18
States Code (commonly known as the 19
‘Federal Advisory Committee Act’); 20
‘‘(II) establishes operating and 21
meeting procedures and guidelines 22
necessary to execute its advisory du-23
ties; and 24
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‘‘(III) is provided with appro-1
priate staffing and resources to exe-2
cute its advisory duties. 3
‘‘(C) R
EQUIRED DATA ELEMENTS .—The 4
data elements in the postsecondary student 5
data system shall include, at a minimum, the 6
following: 7
‘‘(i) Student-level data elements nec-8
essary to calculate the information within 9
the surveys designated by the Commis-10
sioner as ‘student-related surveys’ in the 11
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data 12
System (IPEDS), as such surveys are in 13
effect on the day before the date of enact-14
ment of the College Transparency Act, ex-15
cept that in the case that collection of such 16
elements would conflict with subparagraph 17
(F), such elements in conflict with sub-18
paragraph (F) shall be included in the ag-19
gregate instead of at the student level. 20
‘‘(ii) Student-level data elements nec-21
essary to allow for reporting student en-22
rollment, persistence, retention, transfer, 23
and completion measures for all credential 24
levels separately (including certificate, as-25
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sociate, baccalaureate, and advanced de-1
gree levels), within and across institutions 2
of higher education (including across all 3
categories of institution level, control, and 4
predominant degree awarded). The data 5
elements shall allow for reporting about all 6
such data disaggregated by the following 7
categories: 8
‘‘(I) Enrollment status as a first- 9
time student, recent transfer student, 10
or other non-first-time student. 11
‘‘(II) Attendance intensity, 12
whether full-time or part-time. 13
‘‘(III) Credential-seeking status, 14
by credential level. 15
‘‘(IV) Race or ethnicity, in a 16
manner that captures all the racial 17
groups specified in the most recent 18
American Community Survey of the 19
Bureau of the Census. 20
‘‘(V) Age intervals. 21
‘‘(VI) Gender. 22
‘‘(VII) Program of study (as ap-23
plicable). 24
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‘‘(VIII) Military or veteran ben-1
efit status (as determined based on 2
receipt of veteran’s education benefits, 3
as defined in section 480(c)). 4
‘‘(IX) Status as a distance edu-5
cation student, whether exclusively or 6
partially enrolled in distance edu-7
cation. 8
‘‘(X) Federal Pell Grant recipient 9
status under section 401 and Federal 10
loan recipient status under title IV, 11
provided that the collection of such in-12
formation complies with paragraph 13
(1)(B). 14
‘‘(D) O
THER DATA ELEMENTS .— 15
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner 16
may, after consultation with the Advisory 17
Committee and provision of a public com-18
ment period, include additional data ele-19
ments in the postsecondary student data 20
system, such as those described in clause 21
(ii), if those data elements— 22
‘‘(I) are necessary to ensure that 23
the postsecondary data system fulfills 24
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the purposes described in paragraph 1
(1)(A); and 2
‘‘(II) are consistent with data 3
minimization principles, including the 4
collection of only those additional ele-5
ments that are necessary to ensure 6
such purposes. 7
‘‘(ii) D
ATA ELEMENTS.—The data ele-8
ments described in clause (i) may in-9
clude— 10
‘‘(I) status as a first generation 11
college student, as defined in section 12
402A(h); 13
‘‘(II) economic status; 14
‘‘(III) participation in postsec-15
ondary remedial coursework or gate-16
way course completion; or 17
‘‘(IV) other data elements that 18
are necessary in accordance with 19
clause (i). 20
‘‘(E) R
EEVALUATION.—Not less than once 21
every 3 years after the implementation of the 22
postsecondary student data system described in 23
this subsection, the Commissioner, in consulta-24
tion with the Advisory Committee described in 25
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subparagraph (B), shall review the data ele-1
ments included in the postsecondary student 2
data system and may revise the data elements 3
to be included in such system. 4
‘‘(F) P
ROHIBITIONS.—The Commissioner 5
shall not include individual health data (includ-6
ing data relating to physical health or mental 7
health), student discipline records or data, ele-8
mentary and secondary education data, an 9
exact address, citizenship status, migrant sta-10
tus, or national origin status for students or 11
their families, course grades, postsecondary en-12
trance examination results, political affiliation, 13
or religion in the postsecondary student data 14
system under this subsection. 15
‘‘(3) P
ERIODIC MATCHING WITH OTHER FED -16
ERAL DATA SYSTEMS.— 17
‘‘(A) D
ATA SHARING AGREEMENTS .— 18
‘‘(i) The Commissioner shall ensure 19
secure and privacy-protected periodic data 20
matches by entering into data sharing 21
agreements with each of the following Fed-22
eral agencies and offices: 23
‘‘(I) The Secretary of the Treas-24
ury and the Commissioner of the In-25
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ternal Revenue Service, in order to 1
calculate aggregate program- and in-2
stitution-level earnings of postsec-3
ondary students. 4
‘‘(II) The Secretary of Defense, 5
in order to assess the use of postsec-6
ondary educational benefits and the 7
outcomes of servicemembers. 8
‘‘(III) The Secretary of Veterans 9
Affairs, in order to assess the use of 10
postsecondary educational benefits 11
and outcomes of veterans. 12
‘‘(IV) The Director of the Bu-13
reau of the Census, in order to assess 14
the earnings outcomes of former post-15
secondary education students. 16
‘‘(V) The Chief Operating Officer 17
of the Office of Federal Student Aid, 18
in order to analyze the use of postsec-19
ondary educational benefits provided 20
under this Act. 21
‘‘(VI) The Commissioner of the 22
Social Security Administration, in 23
order to evaluate labor market out-24
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comes of former postsecondary edu-1
cation students. 2
‘‘(VII) The Commissioner of the 3
Bureau of Labor Statistics, in order 4
to assess the wages of former postsec-5
ondary education students. 6
‘‘(ii) The heads of Federal agencies 7
and offices described under clause (i) shall 8
enter into data sharing agreements with 9
the Commissioner to ensure secure and 10
privacy-protected periodic data matches as 11
described in this paragraph. 12
‘‘(B) C
ATEGORIES OF DATA .—The Com-13
missioner shall, at a minimum, seek to ensure 14
that the secure and privacy-protected periodic 15
data matches described in subparagraph (A) 16
permit consistent reporting of the following cat-17
egories of data for all postsecondary students: 18
‘‘(i) Enrollment, retention, transfer, 19
and completion outcomes for all postsec-20
ondary students. 21
‘‘(ii) Financial indicators for postsec-22
ondary students receiving Federal grants 23
and loans, including grant and loan aid by 24
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source, cumulative student debt, loan re-1
payment status, and repayment plan. 2
‘‘(iii) Post-completion outcomes for all 3
postsecondary students, including earnings, 4
employment, and further education, by 5
program of study and credential level and 6
as measured— 7
‘‘(I) immediately after leaving 8
postsecondary education; and 9
‘‘(II) at time intervals appro-10
priate to the credential sought and 11
earned. 12
‘‘(C) P
ERIODIC DATA MATCH STREAM -13
LINING AND CONFIDENTIALITY .— 14
‘‘(i) S
TREAMLINING.—In carrying out 15
the secure and privacy-protected periodic 16
data matches under this paragraph, the 17
Commissioner shall— 18
‘‘(I) ensure that such matches 19
are not continuous, but occur only pe-20
riodically at appropriate intervals, as 21
determined by the Commissioner to 22
meet the goals of subparagraph (A); 23
and 24
‘‘(II) seek to— 25
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‘‘(aa) streamline the data 1
collection and reporting require-2
ments for institutions of higher 3
education; 4
‘‘(bb) minimize duplicative 5
reporting across or within Fed-6
eral agencies or departments, in-7
cluding reporting requirements 8
applicable to institutions of high-9
er education under the Workforce 10
Innovation and Opportunity Act 11
(29 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) and the 12
Carl D. Perkins Career and 13
Technical Education Act of 2006; 14
‘‘(cc) protect student pri-15
vacy; and 16
‘‘(dd) streamline the applica-17
tion process for student loan ben-18
efit programs available to bor-19
rowers based on data available 20
from different Federal data sys-21
tems. 22
‘‘(ii) R
EVIEW.—Not less often than 23
once every 3 years after the establishment 24
of the postsecondary student data system 25
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under this subsection, the Commissioner, 1
in consultation with the Advisory Com-2
mittee, shall review methods for stream-3
lining data collection from institutions of 4
higher education and minimizing duplica-5
tive reporting within the Department and 6
across Federal agencies that provide data 7
for the postsecondary student data system. 8
‘‘(iii) C
ONFIDENTIALITY.—The Com-9
missioner shall ensure that any periodic 10
matching or sharing of data through peri-11
odic data system matches established in 12
accordance with this paragraph— 13
‘‘(I) complies with the security 14
and privacy protections described in 15
paragraph (1)(C)(iv) and other Fed-16
eral data protection protocols; 17
‘‘(II) follows industry best prac-18
tices commensurate with the sensi-19
tivity of specific data elements or 20
metrics; 21
‘‘(III) does not result in the cre-22
ation of a single standing, linked Fed-23
eral database at the Department that 24
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maintains the information reported 1
across other Federal agencies; and 2
‘‘(IV) discloses to postsecondary 3
students what data are included in the 4
data system and periodically matched 5
and how the data are used. 6
‘‘(iv) C
ORRECTION.—The Commis-7
sioner, in consultation with the Advisory 8
Committee, shall establish a process for 9
students to request access to only their 10
personal information for inspection and re-11
quest corrections to inaccuracies in a man-12
ner that protects the student’s personally 13
identifiable information. The Commissioner 14
shall respond in writing to every request 15
for a correction from a student. 16
‘‘(4) P
UBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION .— 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner 18
shall make the summary aggregate information 19
described in subparagraph (C), at a minimum, 20
publicly available through a user-friendly con-21
sumer information website and analytic tool 22
that— 23
‘‘(i) provides appropriate mechanisms 24
for users to customize and filter informa-25
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tion by institutional and student character-1
istics; 2
‘‘(ii) allows users to build summary 3
aggregate reports of information, including 4
reports that allow comparisons across mul-5
tiple institutions and programs, subject to 6
subparagraph (B); 7
‘‘(iii) uses appropriate statistical dis-8
closure limitation techniques necessary to 9
ensure that the data released to the public 10
cannot be used to identify specific individ-11
uals; and 12
‘‘(iv) provides users with appropriate 13
contextual factors to make comparisons, 14
which may include national median figures 15
of the summary aggregate information de-16
scribed in subparagraph (C). 17
‘‘(B) N
O PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE IN -18
FORMATION AVAILABLE .—The summary aggre-19
gate information described in this paragraph 20
shall not include personally identifiable informa-21
tion. 22
‘‘(C) S
UMMARY AGGREGATE INFORMATION 23
AVAILABLE.—The summary aggregate informa-24
tion described in this paragraph shall, at a min-25
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imum, include each of the following for each in-1
stitution of higher education: 2
‘‘(i) Measures of student access, in-3
cluding— 4
‘‘(I) admissions selectivity and 5
yield; and 6
‘‘(II) enrollment, disaggregated 7
by each category described in para-8
graph (2)(C)(ii). 9
‘‘(ii) Measures of student progression, 10
including retention rates and persistence 11
rates, disaggregated by each category de-12
scribed in paragraph (2)(C)(ii). 13
‘‘(iii) Measures of student completion, 14
including— 15
‘‘(I) transfer rates and comple-16
tion rates, disaggregated by each cat-17
egory described in paragraph 18
(2)(C)(ii); and 19
‘‘(II) number of completions, 20
disaggregated by each category de-21
scribed in paragraph (2)(C)(ii). 22
‘‘(iv) Measures of student costs, in-23
cluding— 24
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‘‘(I) tuition, required fees, total 1
cost of attendance, and net price after 2
total grant aid, disaggregated by in- 3
State tuition or in-district tuition sta-4
tus (if applicable), program of study 5
(if applicable), and credential level; 6
and 7
‘‘(II) typical grant amounts and 8
loan amounts received by students re-9
ported separately from Federal, State, 10
local, and institutional sources, and 11
cumulative debt, disaggregated by 12
each category described in paragraph 13
(2)(C)(ii) and completion status. 14
‘‘(v) Measures of postcollegiate stu-15
dent outcomes, including employment 16
rates, mean and median earnings, loan re-17
payment and default rates, and further 18
education rates. These measures shall— 19
‘‘(I) be disaggregated by each 20
category described in paragraph 21
(2)(C)(ii) and completion status; and 22
‘‘(II) be measured immediately 23
after leaving postsecondary education 24
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and at time intervals appropriate to 1
the credential sought or earned. 2
‘‘(D) D
EVELOPMENT CRITERIA .—In devel-3
oping the method and format of making the in-4
formation described in this paragraph publicly 5
available, the Commissioner shall— 6
‘‘(i) focus on the needs of the users of 7
the information, which will include stu-8
dents, families of students, potential stu-9
dents, researchers, and other consumers of 10
education data; 11
‘‘(ii) take into consideration, to the 12
extent practicable, the guidelines described 13
in paragraph (1)(C)(ii)(I), and relevant 14
successor documents or recommendations 15
of such guidelines; 16
‘‘(iii) use modern, relevant technology 17
and enhance and update the postsecondary 18
student data system with information, as 19
necessary to carry out the purpose of this 20
paragraph; 21
‘‘(iv) ensure data privacy and security 22
in accordance with standards and guide-23
lines developed by the National Institute of 24
Standards and Technology, and in accord-25
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•S 1349 IS
ance with any other Federal law relating to 1
privacy or security, including complying 2
with the requirements of subchapter II of 3
chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, 4
specifying security categorization under the 5
Federal Information Processing Standards, 6
and security requirements, and setting of 7
National Institute of Standards and Tech-8
nology security baseline controls at the ap-9
propriate level; and 10
‘‘(v) conduct consumer testing to de-11
termine how to make the information as 12
meaningful to users as possible. 13
‘‘(5) P
ERMISSIBLE DISCLOSURES OF DATA .— 14
‘‘(A) D
ATA REPORTS AND QUERIES .— 15
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 4 16
years after the date of enactment of the 17
College Transparency Act, the Commis-18
sioner shall develop and implement a se-19
cure and privacy-protected process for 20
making student-level, non-personally iden-21
tifiable information, with direct identifiers 22
removed, from the postsecondary student 23
data system available for vetted research 24
and evaluation purposes approved by the 25
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•S 1349 IS
Commissioner in a manner compatible with 1
practices for disclosing National Center for 2
Education Statistics restricted-use survey 3
data as in effect on the day before the date 4
of enactment of the College Transparency 5
Act, or by applying other research and dis-6
closure restrictions to ensure data privacy 7
and security. Such process shall be ap-8
proved by the National Center for Edu-9
cation Statistics’ Disclosure Review Board 10
(or successor body). 11
‘‘(ii) P
ROVIDING DATA REPORTS AND 12
QUERIES TO INSTITUTIONS AND STATES .— 13
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The Commis-14
sioner shall provide feedback reports, 15
at least annually, to each institution 16
of higher education, each postsec-17
ondary education system that fully 18
participates in the postsecondary stu-19
dent data system, and each State 20
higher education body as designated 21
by the governor. 22
‘‘(II) F
EEDBACK REPORTS .—The 23
feedback reports provided under this 24
clause shall include program-level and 25
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•S 1349 IS
institution-level information from the 1
postsecondary student data system re-2
garding students who are associated 3
with the institution or, for State rep-4
resentatives, the institutions within 5
that State, on or before the date of 6
the report, on measures including stu-7
dent mobility and workforce outcomes, 8
provided that the feedback aggregate 9
summary reports protect the privacy 10
of individuals. 11
‘‘(III) D
ETERMINATION OF CON -12
TENT.—The content of the feedback 13
reports shall be determined by the 14
Commissioner in consultation with the 15
Advisory Committee. 16
‘‘(iii) P
ERMITTING STATE DATA QUE -17
RIES.—The Commissioner shall, in con-18
sultation with the Advisory Committee and 19
as soon as practicable, create a process 20
through which States may submit lists of 21
secondary school graduates within the 22
State to receive summary aggregate out-23
comes for those students who enrolled at 24
an institution of higher education, includ-25
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•S 1349 IS
ing postsecondary enrollment and college 1
completion, provided that those data pro-2
tect the privacy of individuals and that the 3
State data submitted to the Commissioner 4
are not stored in the postsecondary edu-5
cation system. 6
‘‘(iv) R
EGULATIONS.—The Commis-7
sioner shall promulgate regulations to en-8
sure fair, secure and privacy-protected, and 9
equitable access to data reports and que-10
ries under this paragraph. 11
‘‘(B) D
ISCLOSURE LIMITATIONS .—In car-12
rying out the public reporting and disclosure re-13
quirements of this subsection, the Commis-14
sioner shall use appropriate statistical disclo-15
sure limitation techniques necessary to ensure 16
that the data released to the public cannot in-17
clude personally identifiable information or be 18
used to identify specific individuals. 19
‘‘(C) S
ALE OF DATA PROHIBITED .—Data 20
collected under this subsection, including the 21
public-use data set and data comprising the 22
summary aggregate information available under 23
paragraph (4), shall not be sold to any third 24
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•S 1349 IS
party by the Commissioner, including any insti-1
tution of higher education or any other entity. 2
‘‘(D) L
IMITATION ON USE BY OTHER FED -3
ERAL AGENCIES.— 4
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner 5
shall not allow any other Federal agency to 6
use data collected under this subsection for 7
any purpose except— 8
‘‘(I) for vetted research and eval-9
uation conducted by the other Federal 10
agency, as described in subparagraph 11
(A)(i); or 12
‘‘(II) for a purpose explicitly au-13
thorized by this Act. 14
‘‘(ii) P
ROHIBITION ON LIMITATION OF 15
SERVICES.—The Secretary, or the head of 16
any other Federal agency, shall not use 17
data collected under this subsection to 18
limit services to students. 19
‘‘(E) L
AW ENFORCEMENT .—Personally 20
identifiable information collected under this 21
subsection shall not be used for any Federal, 22
State, or local law enforcement activity or any 23
other activity that would result in adverse ac-24
tion against any student or a student’s family, 25
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•S 1349 IS
including debt collection activity or enforcement 1
of immigration laws. 2
‘‘(F) L
IMITATION OF USE FOR FEDERAL 3
RANKINGS OR SUMMATIVE RATING SYSTEM .— 4
The comprehensive data collection and analysis 5
necessary for the postsecondary student data 6
system under this subsection shall not be used 7
by the Secretary or any Federal entity to estab-8
lish any Federal ranking system of institutions 9
of higher education or a system that results in 10
a summative Federal rating of institutions of 11
higher education. 12
‘‘(G) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing 13
in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent 14
the use of individual categories of aggregate in-15
formation to be used for accountability pur-16
poses. 17
‘‘(H) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING 18
COMMERCIAL USE OF DATA .—Nothing in this 19
paragraph shall be construed to prohibit third- 20
party entities from using publicly available in-21
formation in this data system for commercial 22
use. 23
‘‘(6) S
UBMISSION OF DATA.— 24
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•S 1349 IS
‘‘(A) REQUIRED SUBMISSION.—Each insti-1
tution of higher education participating in a 2
program under title IV, or the assigned agent 3
of such institution, shall, for each eligible pro-4
gram, in accordance with section 487(a)(17), 5
collect, and submit to the Commissioner, the 6
data requested by the Commissioner to carry 7
out this subsection. 8
‘‘(B) V
OLUNTARY SUBMISSION .—Any insti-9
tution of higher education not participating in 10
a program under title IV may voluntarily par-11
ticipate in the postsecondary student data sys-12
tem under this subsection by collecting and sub-13
mitting data to the Commissioner, as the Com-14
missioner may request to carry out this sub-15
section. 16
‘‘(C) P
ERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFOR -17
MATION.—In accordance with paragraph 18
(2)(C)(i), if the submission of an element of 19
student-level data is prohibited under para-20
graph (2)(F) (or otherwise prohibited by law), 21
the institution of higher education shall submit 22
that data to the Commissioner in the aggregate. 23
‘‘(7) U
NLAWFUL WILLFUL DISCLOSURE .— 24
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•S 1349 IS
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful 1
for any person who obtains or has access to 2
personally identifiable information in connection 3
with the postsecondary student data system de-4
scribed in this subsection to willfully disclose to 5
any person (except as authorized in this Act or 6
by any Federal law) such personally identifiable 7
information. 8
‘‘(B) P
ENALTY.—Any person who violates 9
subparagraph (A) shall be subject to a penalty 10
described under section 3572(f) of title 44, 11
United States Code, and section 183(d)(6) of 12
the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 13
U.S.C. 9573(d)(6)). 14
‘‘(C) E
MPLOYEE OF OFFICER OF THE 15
UNITED STATES.—If a violation of subpara-16
graph (A) is committed by any officer or em-17
ployee of the United States, the officer or em-18
ployee shall be dismissed from office or dis-19
charged from employment upon conviction for 20
the violation. 21
‘‘(8) D
ATA SECURITY.—The Commissioner shall 22
produce and update as needed guidance and regula-23
tions relating to privacy, security, and access which 24
shall govern the use and disclosure of data collected 25
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•S 1349 IS
in connection with the activities authorized in this 1
subsection. The guidance and regulations developed 2
and reviewed shall protect data from unauthorized 3
access, use, and disclosure, and shall include— 4
‘‘(A) an audit capability, including manda-5
tory and regularly conducted audits; 6
‘‘(B) access controls; 7
‘‘(C) requirements to ensure sufficient data 8
security, quality, validity, and reliability; 9
‘‘(D) confidentiality protection in accord-10
ance with the applicable provisions of sub-11
chapter III of chapter 35 of title 44, United 12
States Code; 13
‘‘(E) appropriate and applicable privacy 14
and security protection, including data retention 15
and destruction protocols and data minimiza-16
tion, in accordance with the most recent Fed-17
eral standards developed by the National Insti-18
tute of Standards and Technology; and 19
‘‘(F) protocols for managing a breach, in-20
cluding breach notifications, in accordance with 21
the standards of National Center for Education 22
Statistics. 23
‘‘(9) D
ATA COLLECTION.—The Commissioner 24
shall ensure that data collection, maintenance, and 25
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•S 1349 IS
use under this subsection complies with section 552a 1
of title 5, United States Code. 2
‘‘(10) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 3
‘‘(A) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDU -4
CATION.—The term ‘institution of higher edu-5
cation’ has the meaning given the term in sec-6
tion 102. 7
‘‘(B) M
INORITY-SERVING INSTITUTION.— 8
The term ‘minority-serving institution’ means 9
an institution of higher education listed in sec-10
tion 371(a). 11
‘‘(C) P
ERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFOR -12
MATION.—The term ‘personally identifiable in-13
formation’ means personally identifiable infor-14
mation within the meaning of section 444 of the 15
General Education Provisions Act.’’. 16
SEC. 3. REPEAL OF PROHIBITION ON STUDENT DATA SYS-17
TEM. 18
Section 134 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 19
U.S.C. 1015c) is repealed. 20
SEC. 4. INSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Paragraph (17) of section 487(a) 22
of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) 23
is amended to read as follows: 24
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•S 1349 IS
‘‘(17) The institution or the assigned agent of 1
the institution will collect and submit data to the 2
Commissioner for Education Statistics in accordance 3
with section 132(l), the nonstudent related surveys 4
within the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data 5
System (IPEDS), or any other Federal institution of 6
higher education data collection effort (as designated 7
by the Secretary), in a timely manner and to the 8
satisfaction of the Secretary.’’. 9
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 10
subsection (a) shall take effect on the date that is 4 years 11
after the date of enactment of this Act. 12
SEC. 5. TRANSITION PROVISIONS. 13
The Secretary of Education and the Commissioner 14
for Education Statistics shall take such steps as are nec-15
essary to ensure that the development and maintenance 16
of the postsecondary student data system required under 17
section 132(l) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as 18
added by section 2 of this Act, occurs in a manner that 19
reduces the reporting burden for entities that reported 20
into the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System 21
(IPEDS). 22
Æ
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