Wellbeing Checks or Privacy Intrusions?

Is our education system exhibiting signs of serious mission creep?  At what point has the mission shifted from providing a knowledge-based academic education to conducting wellbeing checks and collecting a wide range of data?  The Tennessee Department of Education appears to have made that shift and recently released a Wellbeing Check Toolkit.  The backlash to the Toolkit document was so incredible it was withdrawn and the document no longer available through official channels.  It still can be found underground and can be downloaded from links in this post.

A search online for “Tennessee wellbeing checks” will result in many articles about the release of the document as well as the backlash and withdrawal.  

This post is going to provide you the ability to download the document so you can look at it for yourself.  It is also going to present two videos.  I recommend watching the first video, “Rejected – Tennessee Department of Education Wellness Checks “Overreach” Program.”  The 29 minute video goes through the document page by page with an very informative narrative pointing out many red flags. 

You can view the document below. If you click on the arrow in the lower right corner it will bring up a full size view of the document that can be downloaded. Or you can click here to view or download a copy.

Here is the excellent and informative video “Rejected – Tennessee Department of Education Wellness Checks “Overreach” Program.”

Here is another video about the wellbeing checks titled “Government orders “well-being checks” on all children.”

While this document was produced with plans to be implemented in Tennessee, the idea is not unique to that state. Watch for similar plans in your state. The plans may not stand out quit like the TN Toolkit but may be embedded in other plans. I won’t be surprised if TN comes back with a new plan that appears less intrusive but likely still crossed the line of what many will find acceptable.

Parents and communities should band together to develop a State Department of Education Wellbeing Check Toolkit and then employ it to conduct checks of their state department and every agency and department that has any connection to it.