HB 255 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Revise online data privacy laws for K-12 pupil records

HB 255 revises Montana's data privacy rules for K-12 student records held by third-party educational technology providers (like apps or cloud services). It requires school districts to include specific privacy protections in contracts with these vendors, such as prohibiting the use of student data for targeted advertising, ensuring data security, and guaranteeing students or parents can access or correct their records. The bill also allows schools to adopt pre-approved model contracts from privacy-focused consortia to simplify compliance. These changes directly affect school districts, educational tech companies, and students whose data is stored or managed through digital platforms.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
House Passage
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action May 22, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC2117.pdf HB0255_1.pdf · 2 edits
MINOR
The bill was renumbered from LC 2117 to HB 255.1 and updated with a new list of sponsors. The text was reorganized to consolidate penalty clauses into a single numbered paragraph, removing the old numbering sequence and creating a continuous list for clarity.
Scope change
No substantive changes to the bill's scope, applicability, or legal requirements were identified in this version.
TECHNICAL

The bill title and header were updated to reflect the new House Bill number (HB 255.1) and include a complete list of sponsors.

The numbering of penalty clauses was consolidated to remove gaps and create a continuous sequence from (3) to (6).

Floor votes · House Feb 10, 2025

How they voted

982
Passed
Total votes 100
Feb 10, 2025
D Democratic42
40 Yea 2 Nay
95% Yea
R Republican58
58 Yea
100% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
28
Key actions
4
Committee
5
Amendments
1
Apr 8, 2025
Amended
(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Education and Cultural Resources
upper
Feb 20, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Education and Cultural Resources
upper
Feb 10, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (98-2)
house
Feb 4, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Education
lower
Feb 4, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Education
lower
Feb 3, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Education
lower
Jan 20, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Education
lower
Jan 17, 2025
Introduced
(H) Introduced
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Bob Carter
Bob Carter
DDemocratic
MT
96