On January 12, 2024, Assembly Bill 801 on Student privacy: online personal information was read a second time and on the same date passed by the Assembly Committee on Education. Introduced on February 13, 2023, the bill would amend the Learning Personal Information Protection Act and the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (the Act) and introduce additional requirements regarding the right to delete preschool, prekindergarten, or K–12 pupil data.

What is the scope of the bill?

The bill would amend the scope of the Act clarifying that when applied to K–12 students, 'covered information' does not include mandatory pupil records, official records, files, and data directly related to a pupil and maintained by the school or local educational agency, including information within records encompassing all the material kept in the pupil's cumulative folder.

What are the main provisions of this bill?

This bill establishes new requirements for the deletion of personal data. Specifically, the bill would require an operator to delete a preschool, prekindergarten, or K–12 pupil's covered information that is not subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended) (CCPA) where:

• the pupil's parent or legal guardian, the pupil's education rights holder, or the pupil, as provided, requests an operator to delete the covered information under the operator's control; or
• the student pupil is no longer enrolled in the local educational agency, preschool, prekindergarten, or district. However, the operator would require documentation that the pupil is no longer enrolled.

The bill would also specify that its provisions must not be interpreted to limit or supersede any rights or requirements under specified federal law.

You can read the bill here and track its progress here.