8 Ways Teachers Can Prioritize Student Data Privacy

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.” ~ Bill Beattie

Good things have come from having technology in schools. Educational technology allows teachers and students to stay connected. It made distance learning possible during the COVID-19 pandemic when it wasn’t safe for schools to be open. That said, the introduction of technology also has put student data privacy at risk.

At Alludo, it’s our mission to provide teachers and staff with the tools and training they need to fully protect their students, themselves and the district. That’s why we’ve created the Alludo K-12 CyberSmart Training program that incorporates all your staff will need to understand online threats and how to mitigate risk, customized for your unique district's needs. Here are eight ways that teachers and staff can prioritize student data privacy.

Table of Contents

1. What is Student Data Privacy?
   
   1. Key Laws Related to Student Data Protection
2. Who is Responsible for Student Data Protection and Privacy?
3. 8 Ways Teachers Can Prioritize Student Data Privacy
   1. #1: Learning About Student Data Privacy
   2. #2: Proactively Sharing Information with Students & Families about Data Collection & Use
   3. #3: Taking Care to Use Tools That Adequately Protect Student Privacy
   4. #4: Empowering Students to Set Boundaries on Sharing Information
   5. #5: Holding Students' Data in Confidence and Sharing it Only When Necessary
   6. #6: Establishing Clear Security Practices in the Classroom
   7. #7: Being Safe on Social Media
   8. #8: Having a Plan in Place for Mistakes
   9. What Resources Are Available to Help Teachers Understand and Teach Student Privacy
4. Alludo's Take
5. Empower Teachers and Staff in Your District to Prioritize Student Data Privacy with Alludo

What is Student Data Privacy?

Schools and teachers have an obligation to prioritize student data privacy. Student data may include all of the following things:

• Basic personal information including students’ names, ages, gender identity, ethnicities, races, socioeconomic status, pronoun preferences, and any demographic data that schools collect when registering students.
• Education data including students’ test scores, grades, attendance, health records, and any disciplinary records or notes about career or college goals.
• Observational data, which may include teachers’ and administrators’ notes about students’ behavior in the classroom, interests, or motivations.
• Student records, including time spent on tasks, homework, learning applications, and standardized test scores.
• Any other personal data that helps schools meet students’ needs, including home circumstances, healthcare, food security, transportation access, and internet and device access.

Keeping these things in mind, student data privacy is the “responsible, ethical, and equitable collection, use, sharing, and protection of student data.” In other words, it refers to the need to protect students’ data, store it properly to prevent theft or misuse, and limit access to it.

Both teachers and administrators must play a role in student data privacy because they’re the people who collect data and store it, so the burden is on them to make sure that the data is not compromised.

Key Laws Related to Student Data Protection

There are several laws that dictate the responsibilities of school districts as they relate to student privacy:

• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which gives parents the right to access their child’s educational data, limits the use of such data, and allows schools to share data with other school districts on an as-needed basis.
• Protection of Pupils’ Rights Amendment (PPRA), which lays down rules regarding schools and school districts surveying students about certain topics, including politics, religion, sexuality, mental health, and income, among other things.
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), which regulates the content of and data collection by websites or organizations that market themselves to children under the age of 13.
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires states to collect data regarding children with disabilities and regulates the storage of such data.

What should be clear from reading the legal requirements is that there is a lot of responsibility on teachers, administrators, and school districts to be mindful of students’ privacy and take steps to protect their data.

Who is Responsible for Student Data Protection and Privacy?

The responsibility for protecting student data is shared by everyone in the student’s orbit. While teachers bear a significant amount of responsibility, they must also rely on others in the system to care as much about students’ privacy as they do.

All of the following groups may need to collect data regarding students and use it in a variety of ways. That means they all must play their part in keeping the data protected and preventing its misuse:

• Parents
• Teachers
• Students
• School Administrators
• District Administrators
• Local and County Officials
• State and Federal Officials

Since data may be accessible by any or all of the above, it’s essential for everybody who has access to student data to understand their responsibilities to students and to the law.

8 Ways Teachers Can Prioritize Student Data Privacy

Since teachers see students every day, they should know how to protect students’ data. Here are eight ways they can keep student data safe.

#1: Learning About Student Data Privacy

To do a good job of prioritizing student data privacy, teachers must first understand what student data privacy is and which regulations and requirements they must meet. It can help to have professional learning that’s relevant to data privacy, such as the Alludo K-12 CyberSmart Training program.

District personnel who educate themselves or whose school districts give them access to relevant information are less likely to inadvertently put a student’s privacy at risk. An understanding of privacy and their obligations makes it clear what staff must do and how they must do it.

#2: Proactively Sharing Information with Students & Families about Data Collection & Use

Teachers can show parents and students that they care about student data collection and use by proactively sharing information about them. Information sharing might include specifics on how teachers and schools collect student information, how they use it, and which precautions are taken to protect it.

This type of sharing brings parents and students into the loop, setting expectations for student data privacy and allowing parents to voice any concerns they may have with teachers.

#3: Taking Care to Use Tools That Adequately Protect Student Privacy

Today’s teachers often use tools and technology in the classroom and in some cases, those tools may aggregate and collect student data. It’s the responsibility of teachers to choose tools that encrypt data in compliance with school and district rules as well as with state and federal regulations.

In practical terms, teachers should research tools before they use them, making sure they understand how and when data is stored and what protections are in place to minimize the risk of data breaches or mishandling.

#4: Empowering Students to Set Boundaries on Sharing Information

Protection of student data privacy starts with students, who have access to their own information and should play a role by being mindful of their own privacy. Teachers can help by educating students about the need for privacy and encouraging them to set boundaries on sharing personally identifiable information.

One option might be to encourage students to ask questions about who is asking for their data, why they might want it, and whether they should comply. In other words, they can teach students to apply critical thinking and healthy boundary-setting to the protection of their personal information.

#5: Holding Students’ Data in Confidence and Sharing It Only When Necessary

Teachers must take care when holding students’ data regardless of what type of data it is and what format it’s in. For example, a teacher who collects students’ birthdays in a document should be sure that the file is encrypted or protected by a password.

On a related note, teachers must note share students’ private information with anybody who doesn’t need to have it, not even with another teacher. Maintaining strict protocols about sharing data minimizes the risks of students’ privacy being compromised.

#6: Establishing Clear Security Practices in the Classroom

Any information or data teachers collect or share should be shared with clearly-defined security practices. The best way to do it is to protect everything because then it becomes part of the way the teacher operates in the classroom.

For example, if a teacher creates a Google Sheet to share with students, they should limit access to students only and set privileges (read only, edit, etc) according to the assignment or information being shared.

#7: Being Safe on Social Media

Social media has become a big part of our lives and teachers should take special care with both personal and professional social media accounts. If teachers have a professional account, here are some things they can do to protect students’ privacy:

• Set Facebook privacy to “Friends Only”
• Set Twitter privacy so only people you follow can see your Tweets
• Don’t share personal information about students
• Blur students’ faces if you share classroom photos

By doing these things and talking about them, teachers can also set a good example to help students understand how and why they should protect their own privacy on social media.

#8: Having a Plan in Place for Mistakes

Every school district should have a plan in place to deal with data breaches and parents and students should be kept informed about it. For example, how will students and parents be informed if their data is compromised? Who will be responsible for notifying them? What steps will be followed after a breach to minimize the damage to students’ data?

A sample plan might say that the teacher should notify school administrators immediately, and that school administrators will notify parents via email. Follow-ups might include enrolling students in an identity protection service.

What Resources Are Available to Help Teachers Understand and Teach Student Privacy?

Teachers can and should take advantage of outside resources to help them protect student privacy. Here are three to try:

1. The US Department of Education website has resources that include training materials, best practices, and guidance documents dedicated to protecting student privacy.
2. Student Privacy Compass has a collection of educational resources related to student privacy that include interactive activities, short videos, and slide decks.
3. The Alludo K-12 CyberSmart Training program is a comprehensive platform for curating, publishing, managing, and measuring cybersecurity training.

Identifying and using resources can help teachers learn about the importance of protecting student data and educate students about their rights.

Alludo’s Take

At Alludo, we understand that teachers and school officials must play their part in protecting student data and shielding their privacy. It’s for that reason that the Alludo Content Catalog contains hundreds of topics to create specific courses to meet their cybersecurity needs. An example is our K-12 Cybersecurity Training Awareness program.

If you partner with us, we’ll work with you to provide the professional development resources and environment that will meet the needs of teachers and students in your district.

Empower Teachers and Staff in Your District to Prioritize Student Data Privacy with Alludo

Student Data Privacy is and must continue to be a priority for everybody in the educational system, including assistant superintendents, administrators, teachers, parents, and students. The 8 ideas we’ve included here can help teachers address student security while educating students about how to protect themselves.

Are you ready to empower teachers in your district to prioritize student data security? Alludo can help! Click here to begin your free trial of Alludo’s Madagascar, our online learning platform for educators, with our Privacy and Security mission (with 17 tracks) preloaded.