S-2075.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5509

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      57th Legislature     2001 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Higher Education (originally sponsored by Senators Kohl‑Welles, Hochstatter, Shin, Kline, Hargrove, Horn, Fairley, Sheahan, B. Sheldon, Prentice, McAuliffe, Roach and Costa)

READ FIRST TIME 03/05/2001.

Requiring institutions of higher education to use personal identifiers that are not social security numbers.

    AN ACT Relating to identification of students, staff, and faculty at institutions of higher education; adding a new section to chapter 28B.10 RCW; creating new sections; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature finds that the occurrences of identity theft are increasing.  The legislature also finds that widespread use of the federally issued social security numbers has made identity theft more likely to occur.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 28B.10 RCW to read as follows:

    (1) Institutions of higher education shall not use the social security number of any student, staff, or faculty for identification except for the purposes of employment, financial aid, research, assessment, accountability, transcripts, or as otherwise required by state or federal law.

    (2) Each institution of higher education shall develop a system of personal identifiers for students to be used for grading and other administrative purposes.  The personal identifiers may not be social security numbers.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  The institutions of higher education, in conjunction with the higher education coordinating board and the state board for community and technical colleges, shall submit a report to the legislature by December 1, 2001, outlining the institution's personal identifier system.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  Each institution of higher education shall use its own existing budgetary funds to develop the system for personal identifiers.  No new state funds shall be allocated for this purpose.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.  Section 2 of this act takes effect July 1, 2002.

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