ACT Class Action Says Test-Maker Discloses Private Info

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UPDATE: October 2020, the California ACT test class action settlement is now open. Click here to learn more.

A group of students allege that test-maker ACT Inc. violated their privacy by improperly disclosing their disabilities.

Lead plaintiffs, including students and their parents, claim in the ACT class action lawsuit that their disabilities were disclosed to colleges when the test-maker sent this information to colleges and also sold it to third parties.

“The sale and disclosure of student disability data are flagrant violations of the privacy and civil rights of students with disabilities,” alleges the ACT class action lawsuit. “ACT profits off these violations and uses them to gain an edge in the marketplace over its only competitor, the College Board, which does not disclose students’ disabilities to colleges and universities.”

According to the plaintiffs in the ACT class action lawsuit, test-takers disclose their disabilities in order to receive accommodations. However, ACT allegedly asks for additional information outside of the accommodation request process.

“ACT asks every student registering for the ACT Test if they have disabilities that require ‘special provisions from the educational institution [i.e. a college],’ and asks them to choose a disability that ‘most closely describes your situation,’” points out the ACT class action lawsuit.

The ACT class action lawsuit says that other major college entrance exam companies, like the SAT, do not disclose this type of information.

“This question is part of the test registration process and is separate from the ACT accommodations request process,” allege the plaintiffs. “ACT does not use this information to determine whether to grant a student testing accommodations. It uses this information to make money.”

According to the ACT class action lawsuit, the test-maker discloses this information improperly in two ways. Colleges receive detailed disability information as a part of the score report from ACT. Additionally, ACT uses this information to tout its enrollment services business that it sells to colleges and universities to help “target” their recruitment efforts.

The plaintiffs in the ACT class action lawsuit say that this use of information about their and other test-takers’ disabilities violates their rights under the Rehabilitation Act. Under the Act, alleges the ACT class action lawsuit, ACT is prohibited from making pre-admission inquiries into student disabilities.

Further, the disclosure of personally identifiable information, including disabilities, about test-takers as a part of ACT’s enrollment services business allows colleges and universities to specifically exclude students with disabilities from their recruitment efforts.

“ACT is not only affecting the opportunities of students with disabilities in the fiercely competitive college admissions process,” alleges the ACT class action lawsuit. “It is also affecting their opportunities in future employment.”

The ACT class action lawsuit alleges that the test-maker has run afoul of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as well but hides the fact that it discloses this information from students and their parents.

“Students, parents, and their high schools are intentionally kept unaware of ACT’s practice of reporting confidential disability status to colleges, because disability information is conspicuously absent from the ACT score reports they receive,” alleges the ACT class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs in the ACT class action lawsuit are seeking an injunction that would stop the test-maker from the collection and disclosure of disability information about students, as well corrective measures for students whose disability information has already been disclosed.

The plaintiffs are represented by Rahul Ravipudi and Jesse Max Creed of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP and Marci Lerner Miller of Miller Advocacy Group PC.

The ACT Disability Disclosure Class Action Lawsuit is Bloom, et al. v. ACT Inc., Case No. 2:18-cv-06749-GW-KS, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division.