The Kansas House and Senate Education Committees will be busy this week discussing data privacy, sex education, the Common Core standards and charter schools.

Concerns about data gathering and student privacy have been part of the conservative backlash against the Common Core standards, with many groups claiming falsely that the standards require the collection of massive amounts of personal data about students including, some have alleged, their families’ religious and political affiliations.

In truth, there is no data-collection requirement in the Common Core standards. There is, however, an unrelated effort underway by the nonprofit organization inBloom — with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — to collect and synthesize student data as a way to improve individualized learning.

The Kansas State Department of Education has never been part of that program, which appears to be sputtering anyway and is now down to only three participating states. And Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker has said repeatedly that Kansas will not collect any more data about students through its assessment program than it has been collecting for years. That mainly includes the student’s name, age, grade, race, gender, socio-economic status if available, and scores on the tests.

Nevertheless, two bills are being discussed this week that would limit the department’s authority to collect and disseminate personally identifiable student data.

Today, the House Education Committee conducts a hearing on House Bill 2606, the Student Data Accessibility, Transparency and Accountability Act, which would limit the department to using only “aggregate” data when reporting “to any federal agency, state or local agency outside the state of Kansas, or any other out-of-state organization or entity.”

On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee holds a hearing on Senate Bill 367, the “Student Data Privacy Act.” It would prohibit schools from collecting any kind of “biometric data” about students without their parents’ written consent.

On Tuesday, the House panel will hear testimony on House Bill 2620 which would essentially impose an “opt-in” policy for instruction in health and human sexuality. That means schools would be prohibited from providing instruction in that course, “unless written consent has been received from the parent or legal guardian of such student, clearly stating that such parent or legal guardian allows such student to participate in the health and human sexuality education class.”

Kansas currently requires one unit of physical education and health for high school graduation, but families are allowed to “opt-out” if a physician certifies they should not participate, or if the family claims a moral or religious objection. Beyond that, however, local districts are allowed to set their own policies regarding health and human sexuality curriculum.

On Wednesday, the House panel hears testimony on House Bill 2621, nullifying the Common Core standards for reading and math, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards, and establishing an Advisory Council on Curriculum Content Standards. You can see our story from Sunday for more background on that bill.

And on Thursday, both panels will have a joint meeting to hear a presentation from Rick Ogston, founder and CEO of Ohio-based Carpe Diem Learning Systems, LLC, a private, for-profit charter school management company.

Kansas currently has one of the more restrictive charter school laws in the country. Charter schools here must be organized within the structure of a unified school district and must have the approval of both the local school board and state department of education.

But the Senate committee is considering Senate Bill 196, which would greatly expand charter schools by giving other entities authority to establish charter schools, including cities and counties, as well as public or private post-secondary institutions.