Improving Student Privacy Through Better Governance

Executive Summary

Student privacy is not a new issue. In the United States, the primary federal law protecting sensitive student information was enacted in 1974, fifteen years before people started using the internet, yet schools still face routine privacy and data use failures, such as preventable data breaches, sharing student data without parental consent, or deploying technologies that exacerbate inequity. While legislation is an important tool for encouraging better privacy practices, legislative and enforcement processes can be slow, unpredictable, and lack the precision needed to truly protect students and families. Effective and transparent governance, including the authority to make decisions, can work alongside legal compliance to strike a better balance between the promise and pitfalls of data and technology in schools. This is especially visible in current efforts to use data and technology to make schools safer, both to prevent mass violence and to reopen schools during the pandemic, where the tools used are likely legal but not always in students' best interest.

Governance means the people, processes, and structures that decide how data and technology are used while protecting privacy, extending beyond technical data governance to include policy decisions, budgeting, procurement, and regulations. Because legal compliance is a floor rather than a ceiling, schools need inclusive governance that draws on external feedback, particularly from parents and community members, to ensure data and technology are used responsibly and meet community needs. Efforts around school safety and COVID-19 monitoring are at risk of relying on unproven technologies that waste resources and can make some students less safe; since these technologies are usually legal, governance is the best available tool to balance emerging technology with student privacy and civil rights.