NEW Suite of Resources on Privacy Laws: PPRA, FERPA and more!
June 20, 2024
The team of the AASA Student and Child Privacy Center just released a set of resources designed to support superintendents in implementation of and compliance with a set of privacy laws, including the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and a broader guide for good policy pillars.
Mitigating Risks in Student Surveys: An Overview of PPRA
- Summary: This resource offers a deep dive into the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), aiming to clarify misconceptions and provide a clear understanding of when and how this law applies in educational settings. It includes a brief history of the PPRA, guidelines for applying the law, lessons learned from past misapplications of PPRA, and best practices for compliant and effective social emotional learning (SEL) survey administration in school.
- How superintendents can use this resource: Review this resource before administering student surveys to learn about what level of parental engagement is required.
- Format: Short Paper
- Link: https://publicinterestprivacy.org/ppra-student-surveys/
Fixing FERPA
- Summary: This comprehensive series explores the current challenges of implementing the 50-year-old Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) – the U.S.’s primary student privacy law – in modern classrooms, and proposes actionable solutions to revamp FERPA’s privacy protections for the 21st century. The series currently includes FERPA 101 FAQs, A Guide to FERPA’s Exceptions and Exemptions, and our first five recommendations for how FERPA can be improved.
- How superintendents can use this resource: Explore how FERPA’s protections are currently applied in schools and gain ideas for how they can advocate for FERPA to be updated to better protect student privacy.
- Format: Short Papers; FERPA 101 FAQs; Tables of FERPA’s Exceptions and Exemptions
- Link: https://publicinterestprivacy.org/fixing-ferpa/
The Pillars of Well-Designed Student Privacy Legislation
- Summary: This report highlights the twelve foundational pillars of well-designed student privacy legislation, aiming to equip state policymakers with the knowledge and tools necessary to craft and continuously improve state-level student privacy protections. By incorporating best practices and reflecting on lessons learned from other states, policymakers can develop robust frameworks to better protect student data in the modern education and technological landscape.
- How superintendents can use this resource: Find examples of effective ways that states have approached legislating student privacy protections to gain ideas for how they can advocate for their state policymakers to improve student privacy protections.
- Format: Short Paper
- Link: https://publicinterestprivacy.org/well-designed-student-privacy-laws/
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