113 S915 IS: Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of 2013
U.S. Senate
2013-05-09
text/xml
EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
1.This Act may be cited as
the Student Right to Know Before You
Go Act of 2013
.
2.Amendment to
program participation agreementsSection 487(a)(17) of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)(17)) is amended by inserting , in
accordance with section 493E
after of the
Secretary
.
3.Institutional
and financial assistance information for studentsSection 485 of the Higher Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1092) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(n)Alignment with
institutional reporting requirements related to IPEDS
(1)Not later than 6
months after the date of enactment of the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of
2013, the Secretary shall issue guidance outlining which data
metrics required to be submitted by institutions of higher education under
section 493E are duplicative of institutional reporting requirements under this
section and other provisions of this Act.
(2)Link to
institutional reporting websiteNot later than 5 years after the date of
enactment of the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of 2013, an
institution of higher education participating in any program under this title
shall—
(A)not be required to make available such
duplicative requirements, as determined under paragraph (1), under this section
and other provisions of this Act; and
(B)provide a prominently displayed link on the
institution's website to the website described in section
493E(e).
.
4.Institutional
reporting requirements
(a)Amendment to
database of student information prohibitedSection 134(b) of the
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1015c(b)) is amended—
(1)in paragraph (1),
by striking and
after the semicolon;
(2)in paragraph (2),
by striking the period at the end and inserting ; and
;
and
(3)by adding at the
end the following:
(3)is necessary to
carry out section
493E.
.
(b)Part G of title
IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1088 et seq.) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
493E.Institutional
reporting requirements
(a)
(1)Each institution of higher education participating in a
program under this title shall submit to the Secretary data, as determined by
the Secretary, sufficient to complete all student components of reporting
required for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (referred to in
this section as IPEDS
). Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of the Student Right to Know Before
You Go Act of 2013, the Secretary shall submit to institutions of
higher education guidance related to the submission of data under this
paragraph.
(2)The
Secretary shall review, every 5 years, the determination of the category of
data that shall be submitted pursuant to paragraph (1).
(b)Establishment
of additional student classifications
(1)Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the
Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of
2013, the Secretary shall—
(A)establish common
definitions for institutions to follow in submitting the data required under
this section; and
(B)determine both
collection and submission requirements.
(2)Identification
of unit recordsThe Secretary shall require institutions to
identify student unit records to enable coding and reporting on—
(A)students who
participate in remedial education at, or through, the institution;
(B)whether, and at
what level, the student is seeking a degree; and
(C)whether the
student is seeking a certificate.
(c)Establishment
of new outcome metrics
(1)Data submitted to the Secretary under subsection (a)
shall be used to calculate all student components of IPEDS.
(2)Additional
measures to be calculatedIn addition to student component
outcome measures required to be calculated by the Secretary on the day before
the date of enactment of the Student Right to
Know Before You Go Act of 2013, the Secretary shall also
calculate, not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of the
Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of
2013, at the institutional and program specific level:
(A)The percent of
students who receive—
(i)Federal
grants;
(ii)Federal
loans;
(iii)State
grants;
(iv)State
loans;
(v)institutional
grants; or
(vi)institutional
loans.
(B)The average
amount of total Federal loan debt upon student graduation assumed by students
while enrolled at the institution.
(C)The average
amount of total Federal loan debt of students who do not complete a program of
study 2 years after the students' last known enrollment in any institution of
higher education.
(D)Student transfer
rates by sector of transfer, which shall be defined as the percentage of
students who leave an institution and successfully enroll in another
institution, including whether the receiving institution is a public 4-year
institution, public 2-year institution, public less-than-2-year institution,
private nonprofit 4-year institution, private nonprofit 2-year institution,
private nonprofit less-than-2-year institution, private for-profit 4-year
institution, private for-profit 2-year institution, or private for-profit
less-than-2-year institution.
(E)Rates of
continuation to higher levels of education.
(F)The percent of
students who receive the degree level they initially sought.
(G)The outcome
measures described in subparagraphs (A) through (F), in addition to all student
level components of IPEDS required to be reported on the day before the date of
enactment of the Student Right to Know Before
You Go Act of 2013, shall also be made available on the basis of
the following student type:
(i)Students who
received a Federal Pell Grant.
(ii)Students who
received a Federal Stafford Loan, but not a Federal Pell Grant.
(iii)Students who
received neither a Federal Pell Grant, nor a Federal Stafford Loan.
(iv)Students who are
identified as veterans who received assistance under the Post-9/11 Veterans
Educational Assistance Program under chapter 33 of title 38, United States
Code. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall coordinate with the Secretary to
make available data sufficient to enable such reporting under this
clause.
(v)Enrollment
status, including the following:
(I)First-time,
full-time students.
(II)First-time,
part-time students.
(III)Non-first-time,
full-time students.
(IV)Non-first-time,
part-time students.
(vi)Enrollment
intensity while enrolled at the institution, including the following:
(I)Full-time
only.
(II)Part-time
only.
(III)Mixed
enrollment, both full- and part-time.
(H)Other information
determined necessary.
(d)Linkage to
earnings record data
(1)The Secretary, in cooperation with the Commissioner of
Social Security, shall establish a system under which the student components of
IPEDS are used to create earnings metrics. Such system shall enable the
publication of data on median annual earnings and employment metrics,
disaggregated by—
(A)educational
program based on CIP code;
(B)credential
received;
(C)educational
institution; and
(D)State of
employment.
(2)Standard time
periods for reporting earnings outcomesThe Secretary shall make
publicly available median annual earnings disaggregated by the categories
described in subparagraphs (A) through (D) of paragraph (1) for each of the
following time periods:
(A)2 years after
educational program completion.
(B)6 years after
educational program completion.
(C)15 years after
educational program completion.
(e)Public access
to informationThe information aggregated by the Secretary under
this section shall be included in the IPEDS and posted on a website in a timely
and user-friendly manner and in a way that does not allow for the dissemination
of any personally identifiable information.
(f)Ensuring
comparability of data metricFor a period of 5 years following
the date of enactment of the Student Right to
Know Before You Go Act of 2013, the Secretary shall be
responsible for publishing all student components of IPEDS as such components
would have been produced on the day before the date of enactment of the
Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of
2013.
(g)Involvement of
states and leveraging of investment in existing state-Based systems
(1)Notwithstanding section 444 of the General Education
Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g, commonly known as the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
) except as provided in
paragraph (2), in carrying out this section, the Secretary shall consult
extensively with State offices with existing student-level data collections
from public and private institutions.
(2)No sharing of
personally identifiable informationThe Secretary, a State, or
institution shall not share personally identifiable information of a student in
carrying out paragraph (1), except as necessary to enable individuals who are
employed by the Department to meet the reporting requirements and data
dissemination purposes and requirements under this Act.
(h)Involvement of
Institutions of Higher Education in developing calculation and reporting
standardsIn carrying out this section, the Secretary shall
consult extensively with institutions of higher education and State agencies of
higher education, particularly in the formulation of the calculation and
reporting standards outlined in subsections (b), (c), and (d), and the public
access to information under subsection (e).
(i)Use of data for
institutional improvementThe Secretary shall create a process
through which institutions of higher education participating in programs under
this title and States may request and receive from the Department aggregate
student outcome data for the purposes of institutional improvement and program
evaluation. The Secretary shall promulgate regulations to ensure fair and
equitable access to such data. In cases where institutional data are merged
with Federal record sets and the resulting data are used for Federal
accountability purposes beyond reporting to the public, the Secretary shall
develop procedures to provide opportunities for institutional review of the
disaggregated merged data.
(j)Privacy,
security, and use of information
(1)The data system developed under this section shall not
permit an individual to be individually identified by users of the data system
who are not actively working as database administrators of the system.
(2)Data audit and
data governance systemsThe data system developed under this
section shall include a data audit system assessing data quality, validity, and
reliability and a data governance system to ensure compliance with all Federal
standards of data quality and individual privacy.
(3)Prohibition and
unauthorized use
(A)Individual data collected under this section shall not be
used for any purpose not specifically authorized by Federal law.
(B)No action of Federal authority may be taken against an
individual based on data collected within the data system developed under this
section.
(C)The
Secretary shall issue guidelines to institutions regarding the amendment of the
institutions required annual privacy notices to reference the data collection
required under this section.
(4)Individual
privacy and access to dataPrior to implementation of this
section, the Secretary shall publish for public comment assurances that—
(A)that the system
developed under this section does not disclose any personally identifiable
information and complies with the requirements of section 444 of the General
Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g) (commonly known as the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act
) and other applicable Federal and
State privacy laws; and
(B)that there is a
policy on the use of data collected under this section that prevents any use of
data outside of the purposes of this section.
(k)Penalties for
unauthorized disclosure of dataAny individual who willfully
discloses a personal identifier (such as a name or social security number)
provided under this section, in any manner to an entity not entitled to receive
the identifier, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, imprisoned
not more than 5 years, or both.
(l)Authorization
of appropriationsThere are authorized to be appropriated to
carry out this section such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal
years 2014 through
2022.
.