FINAL BILL REPORT

SSB 5509

C 103 L 01

Synopsis as Enacted

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

Sponsors:  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).

Senate Committee on Higher Education

House Committee on Higher Education

Background:  Institutions of higher education use Social Security numbers as student, staff and faculty identifiers to interconnect information, including state and federal financial aid, career progress after graduation, employment services, grading and data collection for administrative planning, and status reports to various constituents.

Summary:  Institutions of higher education are prohibited from using the Social Security number of any student, staff or faculty for any identification purpose except for employment, financial aid, research, assessment, accountability, transcripts or as otherwise required by state or federal laws.  Each institution must develop a system of personal identifiers for its students to be used for grading and other administrative purposes.  This system may not include the students' Social Security numbers.

A report outlining the institutions' personal identifier systems must be submitted to the Legislature by December 1, 2001.  The institutions must coordinate with the Higher Education Coordinating Board and State Board for Community and Technical Colleges in submitting this report.

No new state funds may be allocated for this bill.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate480

House     94 0

Effective:  July 22, 2001

     July 1, 2002 (Section 2)