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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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Fixing FERPA: Protecting Student Privacy in the Cloud

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Protecting Student Privacy in the Cloud December 13, 2024 Jessica Arciniega, Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, Amelia Vance, and Casey Waughn   CC BY-NC 4.0 From one-to-one devices to virtual reality experiences, technology has become an integral part of the educational journey for today’s students. Edtech provides schools the opportunity to enhance student learning experiences in countless ways, such as using algorithms to personalize individual learning experiences to each student’s strengths and interests, or using virtual reality field trips to teach students about different places. But while technology has great potential to enhance and supplement traditional instruction, schools often do not

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KOSA’s Constitutionality Concerns: Do KOSPA’s Edits Fix the Issues?

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KOSA’s Constitutionality Concerns: Do KOSPA’s Edits Fix the Issues? December 12, 2024 Jessica Arciniega, Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 As the 118th Congress nears its end, PIPC has been closely tracking the likelihood of federal child privacy protections becoming law. As you may recall, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) in July, incorporating two major child privacy bills–the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teen’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). The House Energy & Commerce Committee passed versions of KOSA and COPPA 2.0

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Comparing KOSA AINS with KOSPA

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Comparing the House’s KOSA with Senate’s KOSPA On 7/30/24, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), which incorporates two major student and child privacy bills–the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teen’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0)–into the Eliminate Useless Reports Act of 2024. On 9/17/24, the House posted an amendment in the nature of a substitute from Representative Bilirakis to their previously introduced version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Below is our redline comparing KOSPA as it passed the Senate to the House version of KOSA (as updated in the

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Comparing COPPA 2.0 AINS with KOSPA

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Comparing the House’s COPPA 2.0 AINS with the Senate’s KOSPA The Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) will be included in a Wednesday (9/18) markup by the full House Commerce Committee. An amendment in the nature of a substitute (AINS) were shared publicly this morning (9/17) for both bills. Below is our redline comparing the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) as it passed the Senate to the House version of COPPA 2.0 (as updated in the AINS on 9/17). A similar redline for KOSA is forthcoming. Children and

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Comparing Senate KOSPA with House KOSA/COPPA 2.0

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Comparing Senate KOSPA with House KOSA/COPPA 2.0 On 7/30/24, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), which incorporates two major student and child privacy bills–the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teen’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0)–into the Eliminate Useless Reports Act of 2024. Below is our redline comparing KOSPA as it passed the Senate to the House versions of KOSA (as updated in the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute for KOSA on 6/27) and COPPA 2.0 (as introduced in the House). Table of Contents Add a header to begin generating

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Comparing Senate Versions of KOSA/COPPA 2.0 vs KOSPA

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Comparing Senate Versions of KOSA/COPPA 2.0 vs KOSPA On Tuesday (7/23/24) Senate Majority Leader Schumer introduced an amendment to add two major student and child privacy bills–the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teen’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0)–to the Eliminate Useless Reports Act of 2024. This created a new bill–the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act–which passed a cloture vote today (7/25/24). The Senate is expected to vote on the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act next week. Below is our redline tracking substantive changes to KOSA and COPPA 2.0 in the Kids Online Safety

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American Privacy Rights Act Redline

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American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) Redline Official version posted to Congress.gov on 6/25/2024. Changes from this draft are in purple (note different color codes in the COPPA 2.0 section). Small changes that do not have an impact (likely or substantive) on the bill may not be included as purple below, but we erred on the side of caution and colored most changes. Blue text is from amendments and cuts to the version circulated June 22, 2024 linked here. Black text below struck through is from cuts to the version circulated May 22, 2024 linked here from the version circulated on

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Well-Designed Student Privacy Bills

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The Pillars of Well-Designed Student Privacy Legislation June 2024 Jessica Arciniega, Katherine Kalpos, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 Introduction Over a decade ago, a wave of state student privacy bills arose on the heels of high-profile data breaches and growing concerns about privacy in general. In 2014, 36 states introduced 110 student privacy bills, with a high-water mark of 180 student privacy bills introduced in 49 states in 2015.1 Since then, over a thousand student privacy bills have been introduced in all 50 states, 146 passing into law. 2 Much of the earlier legislation reiterated provisions

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