Nursery World - MPs challenge Government over Reception Baseline legislation

Cross-party MPs have argued that a new law, being introduced in Parliament in the coming weeks, keeps 'parents in the dark' about how their child's data from the Reception Baseline assessment will be used.

The group of MPs are concerned that parents won't have a say about how their child's data from the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is used

According to the MPs, the legislation does not provide an opt-out for parents who do not want information about their child included in a Government database. It also fails to provide information about how the Government could use that data, including selling it to commercial third parties.

The legislation would come into force in September when the Reception Baseline assessment (RBA) becomes statutory. Under the RBA, children will be tested on English and maths in the first six weeks of starting Reception.

The MPs, Labour's Jack Dromey, Caroline Lucas of the Green Party and Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, have written to the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), the Department for Education (DfE) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), demanding transparency in the legislation about how results from the assessment will be used and calling for parents to be given the right to withdraw their children from taking part.

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