Yesterday, Representatives Robin Comey (D-Branford) and Sarah Keitt (D-Fairfield) proposed a bill that would assign children’s State Assigned Student Identifier (SASID) numbers at birth, instead of at the beginning of schooling. The bill has since been referred to the Joint Committee on Education.
“Children are already assigned a SASID number (State Assigned Student Identifier) as a student in CT Public Schools, public preschools, and early intervention programs,” said Comey in response to an inquiry made by Inside Investigator. “Bill HB 5521 would only assign the SASID number earlier to allow our service sector and government agencies to connect and refer between service providers.”
SASIDs are unique, ten-digit codes assigned to students upon their entry into the Connecticut State Department of Education’s (CSDE) Public School Information System (PSIS), which is used to track students’ attendance and enrollment. This info is used by the CSDE for application to state and federal grants, as well as for cross-reference with other CSDE databases.
SASIDs are currently assigned to students upon their entry into a Connecticut public school or are referred to programming by Birth to Three, a service overseen by the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood for the purpose of connecting the parents of pre-K aged children with developmental delays to educational programs and services.
As the bill has only been proposed, details that would further inform residents of its intent, implementation or impact are currently scant. The text of the proposal simply states that it would, “assign a state-assigned student identifier number to each child born in Connecticut to enable data analyses of a child’s developmental growth over time and to assist children who may have developmental delays but are ineligible for services.”
Under current statute, students who are homeschooled or attend private school aren’t assigned such numbers. While private schools must report their attendance and enrollment numbers to the CSDE, homeschooling families do not , making statistics as basic as total population of homeschooled children unknown to the state.
Despite the potential implications of this bill on the issue of homeschooling oversight, Comey merely addressed the intent of the bill as to ensure that parents of young children can be better connected to services, and schools can be better prepared to instruct them.
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“It will be a connective tissue that helps ensure that we are doing the best we can for our children,” said Comey. “The data shows that half of our children enter kindergarten needing considerable help. In the long run the goal is to reduce the need for expensive special education services in preschool and elementary school.”
While Inside Investigator was unable to find data to confirm Comey’s claim, it is clear that Connecticut’s educational performance has been in a state of limbo since COVID. Furthermore, access to, and funding for, early childhood services has been a high priority for the state in recent years, and Gov. Ned Lamont himself has said that he intends to continue to prioritize the issue this session.
On the issue of privacy, Comey seemed unconcerned, instead highlighting the ubiquity of data-collection already being performed by businesses in the private sector.
“As far as privacy concerns, I would argue it’s not in the assignment of the numbers, it’s in the permissions to use the information which is already in place and safeguarded within an individual’s rights,” said Comey. “The business sector is collecting and using data on everything from purchases to subscriptions on your personal identifiers like your phone number, address and more.
HB 5521 is simply looking to better support our children by increasing efficiency and transparency on how we spend public dollars to know whether interventions (or lack thereof) are working.”
