SAVING STUDENT PRIVACY: Since far in 2016, 34 states have introduced 112 student data privacy bills. Of these, 14 states have passed 16 bills as laws. These numbers come from the Data Quality Campaign (DQC), a nonprofit that monitors how student data is used. Its latest report (PDF) offers a bird’s-eye view of major questions and strategies on how to safeguard student privacy as more technology tools are adopted by schools.
The report buckets two approaches to protect privacy: a “prohibitive” approach that outright prevents service providers from collecting a certain type of data; and a “governance” strategy that calls for specific procedures or roles (such as a “chief privacy officer”) to ensure that data is handled properly. DQC calls attention to Colorado’s “far-reaching” Student Data Transparency and Security Act, passed in June 2016, that “may become a model for other states.”
