A plan to put students' education records online is raising privacy concerns.

The New York State Department of Education's plan would store student records online as part of a centralized database. Officials say the database will be useful for parents and administrators, and say that information will not be accessible to the general public.

The state plans to release the data to Atlanta-based nonprofit inBloom, who will then manage the database.

Parents are concerned that their children's private, personal records could be made public by accident or by a computer hacker.

In Smithtown, the Board of Education voted last week to withdraw from the program, citing privacy concerns. But the state's education czar says the database proposal is just an extension of what is already being done at the local level.

Officials say the system could be fully operational by the spring.

State Sen. Jack Martins, of Mineola, is sponsoring a bill that would allow parents to request that their child's personal information not be disclosed to certain third parties.