Legislative Analysis

Fixing FERPA: Clarifying Law Enforcement Access to Student Data

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Fixing FERPA: Clarifying Law Enforcement Access to Student Data August 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 A middle school teacher, Ms. Walters, notices one of her students exhibiting increasingly concerning behaviors as he struggles to process his parents’ ongoing divorce. She knows that the school resource officer (SRO), Officer Luke, went through his own parents’ divorce in high school and has built strong, supportive relationships with students facing similar challenges. Ms. Walters wants to connect them, knowing this kind of mentorship and support often helps students navigate difficult family transitions. But she […]

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Fixing FERPA: Expanding Discipline Disclosures in K-12

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Expanding Discipline Disclosures in K-12 August 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 Imagine your child is harmed by another student at school. You’re assured the situation is being handled, but when you ask for specific details—What actions did you take to protect my child? Was the other student suspended?—you get no answers.  If your child is enrolled in K-12, the school’s silence is often mandated under federal student privacy law. For K-12 schools, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a wall that prohibits them from sharing disciplinary results from

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Senate Commerce Advances COPPA 2.0, With Notable Changes

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Senate Commerce Advances COPPA 2.0, With Notable Changes July 15, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 On June 25th, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) was favorably reported out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Recap: What is COPPA 2.0?  COPPA 2.0 is a bill that seeks to update and strengthen safeguards in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law enacted in 1998 that regulates how commercial operators can collect personal information from children under 13 (see these resources for more

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Fixing FERPA: Adding Cybersecurity Requirements

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Fixing FERPA: Adding Cybersecurity Requirements July 3, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) governs how schools handle everything from report cards to sensitive psychological evaluations. Yet this cornerstone of student privacy law was written in 1974—nearly three decades before most Americans had ever heard of the internet, and long before anyone imagined that a single cyberattack could expose the intimate details of millions of students’ lives. The result? A massive gap between the digital threats students face and the legal protections designed to shield them. Today,

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Kids Online Safety Act Returns

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Kids Online Safety Act Returns June 2, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 The fight for a safer online experience for kids is back on the table. On May 15th, Senators Blackburn and Blumenthal reintroduced the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), bringing back the exact same proposal from December 2024. We’ve been down this road before, meticulously tracking every twist and turn. But this year, it’s time for a clean slate. This blog cuts through the noise to reveal KOSA’s core components and their potential impact on minors, parents, and

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Public Interest Privacy Center Releases Updated State Law Maps

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Press Release Public Interest Privacy Center Releases Updated State Law Maps May 29, 2025 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Public Interest Privacy Center (PIPC) is pleased to announce the release of several updated maps outlining state student privacy laws. The updated state maps series currently includes:  Comprehensive Consumer Privacy Laws; Data from a “Known Child” as Sensitive;  Laws to Protect Children;  State Student Privacy Laws;  Cellphones in Schools Policies;  Laws Modeled on SOPIPA See the maps below!  The State Student Privacy Laws map is adapted from the Student Privacy Compass’s State Student Privacy Laws tracker.  ### About PIPC Founded

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FERPA Priorities in the New Administration

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FERPA Priorities in the New Administration May 7, 2025 Amelia Vance and Morgan Sexton   CC BY-NC 4.0 TLDR: Within the first month of the new Secretary of Education being confirmed, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) announced FERPA enforcement priorities. This reflects an unprecedented focus by a new presidential administration on student privacy. The priorities flagged by USED include: Parental Right to Inspect and Review Education Records;  Safety of Students;  Annual Notification of Rights; and  Military Recruiters. USED also asked State Education Agencies (SEAs) to submit documentation on their and their LEAs FERPA compliance. USED’s focus on FERPA compliance

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Recapping USED’s Recent Surge in FERPA Enforcement Activities

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Recapping USED’s Recent Surge in FERPA Enforcement Activities  April 17, 2025 Morgan Sexton and Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 The student privacy landscape has shifted dramatically in recent weeks, with the U.S. Department of Education (USED) initiating two statewide FERPA investigations in California and Maine. This blog post unpacks these investigations and shares our new infographic showing the steps in a FERPA investigation.  As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact our team! TLDR: On March 27th and 28th, the USED Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) launched two FERPA investigations of the California and Maine state

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Fixing FERPA: FERPA Must Clearly Protect All PII Accessible to Schools

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FERPA Must Clearly Protect All PII Accessible to Schools January 28, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, Amelia Vance, and Casey Waughn   CC BY-NC 4.0 An eighth-grade teacher, Mr. Denning, is shown a video of one of his students, Lauren, candidly discussing her recent experience overcoming mental health struggles on Instagram. He makes a note of what Lauren said in her profile on the school’s student information system (SIS) so that the school guidance counselor can access this information when meeting with Lauren in the future. The note Mr. Denning added is protected under the Family Educational Rights

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New COPPA Update: A Setback for Schools and Student Privacy?

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New COPPA Update A Setback for Schools and Student Privacy? January 17, 2025 Morgan Sexton and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a much-anticipated update to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule)–and it is not what the education community was hoping for. As you may recall, the FTC released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to update the COPPA Rule in December 2023, which included rules clarifying when schools can consent to technology use instead of parents and imposing strong contractual requirements on edtech vendors. However, the final rule

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