Resources and Short Publications
- Student Privacy & Pandemics: Emergency Professional Development for Educators (June 2020)
- The General Data Protection Regulation: Analysis and Guidance for US Higher Education Institutions (May 2020)
- Online Learning Best Practices for Schools and Educators 2-pager (April 2020)
- Student Privacy 101 video series (January 2020)
- School Safety & Privacy: An Animated Introduction (June 2019)
- Policymaker’s Guide to Student Privacy (April 2019)
- Principles on School Safety, Privacy, & Equity (March 2019)
- Disclosing Student Information During School Emergencies: A Primer for Schools (December 2018)
- Parents: Raise Your Hand and Ask Schools How They Protect Student Data (September 2018)
- FERPA 101 for Higher Education 2-pager (October 2018)
- Higher Education Privacy Best Practices 101 2-pager (October 2018)
- Higher Education Contracts and Privacy 101 2-pager (October 2018)
- Law Enforcement Access to Student Records: A Guide for School Administrators & Ed Tech Service Providers (September 2017)
- Seven Basic Security Checks for Evaluating Educational Platforms (November 2016)
- Educator’s Guide to Student Data Privacy (May 2016)
- Quick Privacy Tips for Vendors
- Quick Security Tips for Vendors (October 2015)
- A Parent’s Guide to Student Data Privacy (English, Spanish) (April 2015)
White Papers
- FAQs: Disclosing Student Health Information During the COVID-19 Pandemic (with AASA) (March 2020)
- 2016 Parent Survey: Beyond One Classroom: Parental Support for Technology and Data Use in Schools (December 2016)
- FPF Guide to Student Data Protections Under SOPIPA For K-12 School Administrators and Ed Tech Vendors (November 2016)
- Supporting Parental Choice for Student Data (September 2016)
- 19 Times Data Analysis Empowered Students and Schools (March 2016)
- Student Data and De-Identification: Understanding De-Identification of Education Records and Related Requirements of FERPA (August 2015)
- 2015 Parent Survey: Beyond the Fear Factor: Parental Support for Technology and Data Use in Schools (September 2015)
- Student Data: Trust, Transparency and the Role of Consent (October 2014)
- Who Is Reading Whom Now: Privacy in Education from Books to MOOCs (October 2014)
- The Ethics of Student Privacy: Building Trust for Ed Tech (July 2014)
Articles and Op-Eds
- Polonetsky: Are the Online Programs Your Child’s School Uses Protecting Student Privacy? Some Things to Look For in The 74 (June 2020)
- Letter to the Editor: Colleges need to be transparent about the personal data they collect in the Washington Post (October 2019)
- Letter to the Editor: Protecting Student Privacy in The New York Times (December 2018)
- Securing student data is a challenge that requires sufficient funding in The Hill (December 2017)
- inBloom — Analyzing the past to navigate the future in Data & Society Research Institute Points Blog (February 2017)
- Student data privacy: Moving from fear to responsible use in The Brookings Institute Brown Center Chalkboard Blog (May 2016)
- Learning from Student Data in the National Association of State Boards of Education Standard (May 2016)
- Making a Digital Difference in the Classroom With Data in The Huffington Post (April 2016)
- Getting Student Data Security Right—the First Time in EdSurge (October 2015)
- Why Opting Out of Student Data Collection Isn’t the Solution in EdSurge (March 2015)
- State-by-State Legislation, Understanding FERPA, and a Student’s Role in Data Privacy in EdSurge (June 2015)
- Getting Privacy Policies Right the First Time in EdSurge (December 2014)
- Data De-Identification: Useful Tool, But No Magic Bullet in EdSurge (February 2015)
- Trusting Parents to Make Smart Choices on Student Data in The Hill (July 2015)
- Finding a Balance Between Monitoring and Tracking Students in EducationWeek (May 2015)
- Room for Debate: Transparency About What Data is Used is Key for Parents and Students in New York Times (September 2014)
Weighing in on Legislation and Regulation
- Comments to the Federal Trade Commission on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (December 2019)
- Letter to the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee in advance of the hearing “Examining State and Federal Recommendations for Enhancing School Safety Against Targeted Violence” (July 2019)
- Education, Privacy, Disability Rights, and Civil Rights Groups Send Letter to Florida Governor About Discriminatory Student Database (July 2019)
- Letter to NY State Assembly and Senate supporting a well-crafted moratorium on facial recognition systems for security uses in public schools (June 2019)
- Comments to the Office of the California Attorney General on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (March 2019)
- Comments to the Washington State Senate Ways & Means Committee on the proposed on the Washington Privacy Act, SB 5376 (February 2019)
- Testimony to the Federal Commission on School Safety (July 2018)
- Comments to the Federal Commission on School Safety (June 2018)
- Comments on Minnesota Student Privacy Bill HF 1507 (May 2018)
- Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives House Education and Workforce Committee (May 2018)
- Comments to the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Education, “Workshop to Explore Privacy Issues Related to Education Technology” (November 2017)
- Comments to the U.S. Department of Education, Regulatory Reform Task Force (September 2017)
Blogs
- The European Commission Considers Amending the General Data Protection Regulation to Make Digital Age of Consent Consistent (July 2020)
- Reopening Schools Issue Brief: Increased Data Collection and Sharing (June 2020)
- Securing Student Privacy From Home: Resources for Teachers (June 2020)
- Social (Media) Distancing: Online Learning and Privacy During a Pandemic (March 2020)
- Child Privacy Protections Compared: California Consumer Privacy Act v. Proposed Washington Privacy Act (January 2020)
- MythBusters: COPPA Edition (December 2019)
- The Tangled Web of College Admissions, Data, and Privacy (November 2019)
- Nudging for Good: Growth, Data Privacy, and Student Success (November 2019)
- Increased Surveillance is Not an Effective Response to Mass Violence (October 2019)
- Florida’s School Safety Commission and the “School Safety Portal” (October 2019)
- COPPA Workshop Takeaways (October 2019)
- FTC Reaches Landmark Settlement Regarding Kids’ Privacy, Clarifies Platforms’ and Video Creators’ COPPA Obligations for Child-Directed Content (September 2019)
- School Safety Measures Must Have Evidence, Be Specific, & Have Privacy and Equity Guardrails (July 2019)
- 33 Organizations Send Letter to Florida Governor DeSantis (July 2019)
- School Safety & Privacy: An Animated Introduction (June 2019)
- FPF Releases The Policymaker’s Guide to Student Privacy (April 2019)
- Proposed Florida School Safety Policies Undermine Student Privacy (March 2019)
- Privacy in Higher Education: A Conversation with Sara Collins (March 2019)
- FPF’s Amelia Vance on the Future of Student Privacy (January 2019)
- School Safety Report Neglects Privacy Concerns (December 2018)
- New Resource on FERPA’s Health and Safety Emergency (December 2018)
- FBI Highlights Security Risks for Student Data: What Parents, Schools, and Policymakers Need to Know (September 2018)
- New Study on “the Marketplace for Student Data” (June 2018)
- Dept of Ed: Parents, Not Minor Students, Must Consent to College Admissions Pre-Test Surveys and Data Sharing (May 2018)
- Dept of Ed: Schools Cannot Require Parents or Students to Waive Their FERPA Rights Through Ed Tech Company’s Terms of Service (January 2018)
- Law Enforcement Access to Student Records: What Is the Law? (September 2017)
- Bipartisan Report: Feds Should Connect Student Data While Protecting Privacy (September 2017)
- The Student Privacy Pledge is a Binding Legal Commitment and G Suite for Education Makes the Grade (January 2017)
- Student Privacy Pledge Loopholes? Nope. We Did Our Homework. (October 2016)
- Privacy plays major role in new federal government guidance on transgender student rights (May 2016)
- States and the District of Columbia Introduce ACLU Sponsored Legislation to Address Student Privacy (January 2016)
- Who Exactly IS a “School Official” Anyway? (January 2016)
- Balancing Free Expression and Social Media Monitoring (June 2015)
- President Obama Backs FPF-SIIA Student Privacy Pledge (January 2015)
- K-12 Student Privacy Pledge Announced (October 2014)
- FERPA|Sherpa: Providing a Guide to Education Privacy Issues (August 2014)
Training Initiative Blogs
- Safer Internet Day: How Schools Can Improve Children’s Data Privacy (David Sallay and Monica Bulger)
- Easy Tips for Keeping Student Data Safe When Taking Your Work Home (Susan Bearden)
- 11 Steps to Privacy: The Right to Inspect and Review under FERPA (David Sallay and Amelia Vance)
- 9 Steps to Privacy: The Right to Seek to Amend under FERPA (David Sallay and Amelia Vance)
- 5 Steps for Building a Culture of Data Privacy in Schools (Susan Bearden)
- Voice Assistants in the Classroom: Useful Tool or Privacy Problem? (Susan Bearden)
- Sniffers and Snoopers and Hackers, Oh My! Protecting Yourself from the Risks of Public Wi-Fi (Susan Bearden)
- 3 Easy Steps for Educators to Make a Secure Passphrase (Susan Bearden)
- 3 Easy Ways for Educators to Keep Online Accounts Secure (Susan Bearden)
Resource Interviews
- A Conversation with Rachel Anderson
- A Conversation with Libbi Garrett
- A Conversation with Mark Williams
- A Conversation with Girard Kelly
- A Conversation with Sonja Trainor
- A Conversation with Iris Palmer
- A Conversation with Melissa Peterson
- A Conversation with Dean Folkers
- A Conversation with Kim Nesmith
Guest Blogs
- Cyberattacks Leverage Fear of Coronavirus: How Educators Can Prepare and Respond (Amy McLaughlin, March 2020)
- The Connected World of High School Sports (Olga Garcia-Kaplan, December 2019)
- Mental Health Rights (Kathy Flaherty, December 2019)
- The Educator’s Role: Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security in the Classroom (Ming Scheid, November 2019)
- Digitizing the Directory: Student Privacy in an Evolving Landscape (Austin Kraft, November 2019)
- Parent Supervision or Surveillance? (Alexis Shore, October 2019)
- Wait, Why Not Just Use Administrative Data? (Christopher Laubenthal, August 2019)
- System Upgrade Required: Student Information Protections for the 21st Century (Austin Kraft, April 2019)
- Are Privacy Fears Expanding the Digital Divide (Alan Simpson, February 2019)
- To Advance Learning, Addressing Privacy Fears Is Essential (Alan Simpson, January 2019)