Now more than ever, teachers are using digital tools to help students learn. But how do we ensure that educators don’t end up in the hot seat in student privacy debates? In a Project 24 webinar this week, Tom Murray, state and digital learning director at the Alliance for Excellent Education, talked with Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) expert Mark Cheramie Walz about the steps schools and districts can take to keep student information safe and ensure that apps used in schools comply with privacy laws, such as COPPA.
Created in 1998, COPPA is a federal law that requires commercial online service providers, such as the makers of educational apps, to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under age 13. By governing how online service providers collect and use student information, COPPA helps ensure children’s information is kept secure and supports a parent’s rights to protect their child’s data.
Verifiable parental consent is a critical component of COPPA. It requires the operators of online services to obtain a parent’s sign-off before collecting any personal information, such as name and email address, from kids. When online services are used in schools, school administrators and district leaders can play a leadership role in ensuring parents give consent before any apps are used.
Walz, an attorney at the Pennsylvania education law firm Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams, LLP, suggests schools share with parents a list of the online services it plans to use with students. Walz encourages schools and districts to share the list electronically, even if consent is obtained through a pen-and-paper signature. This way, schools can include direct links to the privacy policy for each online service or app they plan to use. Additionally, the use of school- or district-wide lists to inform parents and obtain consent also reduces the pressure on individual teachers, who would otherwise have to gain consent directly from parents.
In addition to the issue of consent, Walz and Murray touch on a variety of other issues, such as terms of service and third-party contracts. Go here to watch a full recording of the webinar.
