Parents must choose whether to share students' academic details with new TEA system

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The TEA announced this week that it has added a new graduation requirement for students, and parents will need to decide whether to submit their students' data to a new system.

Parents have the choice to share a student's academic information with institutions of higher education through this new system called My Texas Future.

The program's website states it will help students set goals, take action, and expand their options.

According to the TEA, the platform would help give students a perspective on possible careers and wage outcomes, as well as help individual students identify colleges and universities they could qualify for based on their profile and academic information.

According to the My Texas Future website, the system will have an AI-powered chatbox designed to get students answers quickly about college.

My Texas Future says it will show students what schools they could get accepted to before they even apply based on their academic information, including transcripts that will have their test scores, class rank, and GPA.

"We do want to make sure that our kids are being kept safe ... but we also want to make sure we're not holding them back from opportunities because we are scared of the technology," University of Houston School of Education associate professor Jaclyn Ocumpaugh said.

The TEA said the information will be housed in a secure database and shared only with participating higher education institutions through an admissions portal.

Parents, of course, have the option to opt out of this, and the TEA already has a form for families that don't want to share their students' data.

It is a requirement, however, for parents to decide if they want their child's information in this system.