After over a year of pressure from concerned parents, Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) must now obtain parental permission before administering daily check-ins using an emoji-based app.
Fort Worth parents, including Hollie L. Plemons, Todd Daniel, and Meredith Kye, claimed the district was “illegally surveying students and sharing their personal information.”
Following the district’s decision to allow parental oversight, Plemons posted on Facebook:
“[FWISD has] granted the most basic request of ours, just let the parents know about surveys & let them decide what’s best for their child. It’s taken over a year of constant pressure & communication, but we finally got one thing we asked for.”
FWISD spent a total of $80,000 of taxpayer money for the 2022-2023 school year on the app, an invoice revealed.
The district claimed that the app, Rhithm, provides tools for students to “self-regulate” and “help[s] teach the skills needed to mitigate impulsive behavior, provide a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhance a student’s ability to succeed in school, career, and life.”
The daily Rhithm surveys consist of five questions to assess “social-emotional wellbeing,” such as, “What’s it like in your head today?” Students are then prompted with six emoji-based answers such as “foggy,” “racing,” or “clear.” The questions are followed by a one-minute video or activity to address children’s concerns, increase neuroplasticity and promote “healthy habits.”
“It’s simple. Getting into Rhithm rewires the brain,” a video posted to Rhithm’s website states.
Plemons said the district should obtain consent from parents before administering what she believes are psychological surveys.
“Are you afraid to get consent — because if the parents find out you’ve been monkeying around with their children’s brains, doing psychological evaluation without consent by untrained people — that they won’t be happy?” Plemons previously asked the FWISD school board.
District parents also believe Rhithm or FWISD could sell students’ data to third parties. Plemons told The Dallas Express she fears the data collected from students may be used to establish a paper trail and impact future job opportunities.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with these kindergarteners in 20 years when they enter the workforce and they pull up the record and say ‘Yeah, you were always saying that you were angry,'” Plemons explained.
Rhithm’s terms of service state that all data is collected in compliance with the Family Educational Rights Protection Act (FERPA). However, the terms also state, “If you access [Rhithm] through a third party, your data may be on their servers and is subject to their privacy policies.”
The company further asserts that it “may retain the information previously collected” if the app is deleted from a device.
Sarah J. Fields, the director of advocacy for Freedom Coalition, claimed in a Facebook post that Child Protective Services had visited parents at a local school district because of their child’s answers on a Rhithm survey.
“In Lewisville ISD, Denton County Texas, children were asked if they were hungry through an emoji test [Rhithm] on their school-issued iPads. After three days of expressing they were hungry … CPS was called and went to the child’s home,” wrote Fields. “It turns out they asked the question just before lunch period, so of course they responded with a hungry emoji.”
A Rhithm video states that the app “empowers … social workers” with data to assess negative trends within a school population.
By law, teachers are required to report to administrators if they suspect abuse within a home. However, Plemons believes schools should focus on developing personal connections rather than relying on apps to address students’ needs.
“I want that personal interaction with a good teacher who cares about [the child] to see that something’s not okay here,” Plemons said. “I don’t want them on technology more.”
In the face of mounting parental pressure, the district responded in a press release:
“Fort Worth ISD parents: We hear you, and we have created a process that gives you a greater say in the District surveys your child takes,” the district wrote.
Although parental permission is required for Rhithm check-ins, parents must opt out of Title XI, senior exit, ESSER, and youth risk behavior surveys.
FWISD and Rhithm did not respond to The Dallas Express‘ requests for comment by press time.