Authored by PIPC Staff

Student Privacy’s History of Unintended Consequences: Student Privacy in the Modern Era

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III. STUDENT PRIVACY IN THE MODERN ERA Previously published in the Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy III. STUDENT PRIVACY IN THE MODERN ERA Forty years after FERPA was passed, more than 1,000 bills on student privacy have been introduced in all fifty states since 2013,106 and more than 130 have passed in forty states and Washington, D.C. Like FERPA, most of the laws emerged in response to growing concerns over the increased amount of student data collected but also how stakeholders use, report, and protect this data. Well-publicized data breaches in the private sector (such as at Target […]

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Student Privacy’s History of Unintended Consequences

Authored by PIPC Staff, Report / By /

Student Privacy’s History of Unintended Consequences June 2020 Amelia Vance and Casey Waughn1   Previously published in the Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy I. INTRODUCTION It is difficult to imagine a world in which schools cannot print students’ names on the honor roll or in school playbills; announce student athletes’ names, heights, and weights at the start of a game; and share financial aid information with appropriate institutions to ensure that students can finance their education. Yet, in the months following the enactment of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974, and forty years

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School Safety Measures Must Have Evidence, Be Specific, & Have Privacy and Equity Guardrails

Authored by PIPC Staff, Featured Resources, PIPC Resources, Recommended Resources / By /

This week’s newsletter focuses on a new report from Human Rights Watch. I decided to write it because this report joins many others from student privacy advocates that focus nearly exclusively on commercialization risks.

When student privacy reports focus again and again on advertising technology as the major threat to student privacy, stakeholders overlook other insidious privacy harms. The likely result of the report will be a series of articles about how student privacy is in crisis and there are not enough laws and companies are bad. That may draw attention to this issue, but it also means that other really important student privacy issues could fall by the wayside.

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9 Steps to Privacy: The Right to Seek to Amend under FERPA

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9 Steps to Privacy: The Right to Seek to Amend under FERPA May 7, 2019 David Sallay and Amelia Vance Future of Privacy Forum   Shared Under Creative Commons License This blog is the second in a series about how schools can practically apply student privacy laws. Read the first blog on FERPA’s right to inspect and review here.  The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) grants parents and eligible students* the right to seek to amend student records that are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise violate student privacy. This does not mean that schools must change a record whenever a

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11 Steps to Privacy: The Right to Inspect and Review under FERPA

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11 Steps to Privacy: The Right to Inspect and Review under FERPA April 24, 2019 David Sallay and Amelia Vance Future of Privacy Forum   Shared Under Creative Commons License This blog is the first in a series about how schools can practically apply FERPA. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) grants parents and eligible students the right to inspect and review education records and to receive an explanation or interpretation of those records. To fulfill these rights, schools are obligated to follow a fair process. Specifically, schools must Give parents and eligible students the opportunity to inspect

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The Policymaker’s Guide to Student Data Privacy

Authored by PIPC Staff, Featured Resources, PIPC Resources, Recommended Resources / By /

The Policymaker’s Guide to Student Data Privacy April 2019 Tyler Park, Sara Collins, and Amelia Vance Future of Privacy Forum       Shared Under Creative Commons License Table of Contents Add a header to begin generating the table of contents Download the PDF Introduction Schools have always collected a wide range of data—from enrollment information, to tracking student performance throughout the year, to health and disciplinary records—to allow teachers and school leaders to best serve every student. As all levels of education institutions take advantage of technology, such as vast libraries of resources, learning management systems, and tools that

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Disclosing Student Information During School Emergencies: A Primer for Schools

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Disclosing Student Information During School Emergencies: A Primer for Schools December 28, 2018 Chanda Marlowe, Sara Collins, and Amelia Vance Future of Privacy Forum   Shared Under Creative Commons License Schools are responsible for keeping students safe, but they also need to balance safety measures with privacy protections. When emergencies happen, schools may want or be asked to disclose information about students. In doing so, schools must comply with the primary federal student privacy law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Schools must also avoid sharing information that could stigmatize students, make them feel that they can’t share

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Protecting Privacy of School Directory Information

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Protecting Privacy of School Directory Information December 2018 Amelia Vance Originally published by the National Association of State Boards of Education CC BY-NC 4.0 Students do not have the right to attend school anonymously, but they do have a right to have their information protected and used responsibly by local and state education agencies. State boards can help their states strike this balance. When the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) was first passed in 1974, schools realized that they had a problem: Without ongoing consent from parents (or an applicable FERPA exception), they were unable to ask students

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FERPA 101 For Higher Education

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FERPA 101 For Higher Education October 2018 Sara Collins, Trevor Schmitt, and Amelia Vance Future of Privacy Forum   Shared Under Creative Commons License Overview The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law enacted in 1974 that governs information in a student’s education record. The law guarantees, among other things, that an “eligible student” who attends a post-secondary institution has access to their own education record and restricts who else can access, use, and re-disclose student information. FERPA is the primary federal law addressing student data rights and protections. FERPA applies to schools that receive funding

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Dept of Ed: Schools Cannot Require Parents or Students to Waive Their FERPA Rights Through Ed Tech Company’s Terms of Service

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Dept of Ed: Schools Cannot Require Parents or Students to Waive Their FERPA Rights Through Ed Tech Company’s Terms of Service January 20, 2018 Lindsey Barrett and Amelia Vance Future of Privacy Forum   Shared Under Creative Commons License This blog was previously posted on the Future of Privacy Forum blog.  Policymakers, parents, and privacy advocates have long asked whether FERPA is up to the task of protecting student privacy in the 21st century. A just-released letter regarding the Agora Cyber Charter School might signal that a FERPA compliance crack-down – frequently mentioned as their next step after providing extensive guidance by

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