Protecting Student Data Privacy Is a Team Effort: 3 Tips for Getting Teachers Involved

How much are you involving your classroom teachers in your student data privacy conversations? Is it clear where they should go when they have questions about digital tool compliance? 

The past two years have revealed astonishing growth in the number of edtech used in K-12 classrooms across the U.S. This growth should trigger a renewed focus on protecting student data privacy, especially when it comes to ensuring that districts are adhering to federal regulations, such as  FERPA and COPPA, and  state-level regulations, such as those in Illinois, California and New York. 

While critical and useful, these guidelines are wide sweeping and don’t detail all the specific, local contexts or needs of K-12 classroom teachers. Teachers must be involved in student data privacy processes and empowered to support the protection of the personal information of those they care deeply about – their students.

Make it real: Give teachers local context for student data privacy work

A great place to start is to clarify local, state and/or federal data privacy laws and regulations, making them relevant to teachers. Give your teachers the key things they must know in order to successfully comply with requirements and do their jobs. Answer questions in your district’s context, like: what does this actually mean for my teachers? Does it differ by school? How does it affect different groups of students? How can they share this information with families? Then, offer answers to those key questions to the teachers who need it. 

By giving teachers context of why privacy work matters and how they can contribute, they become a critical part of a community of educators working together to ensure student data is protected. 

Tip: Teacher leaders in a school or district can help advocate for student data privacy protections in their groups. This serves as a professional development opportunity for teachers looking to help build capacity for understanding and protecting student data as part of their entire edtech ecosystem.

Giving teachers the tools and support they need to comply

Meeting student data privacy compliance should not be the burden of a single person, or even a single group. K-12 administrators must put support systems and resources in place to help ease the burden of compliance. 

Here are some tips: 

Start teacher involvement and communication early: Tell teachers what is happening, why and what you are going to do to support them. This work cannot be done in a vacuum – teachers are at the forefront of implementing tools in classrooms, and should be included in any compliance work early on. While certain requirements must be met, engaging them early in the process will help garner teacher buy-in while preserving authority. Ask teachers what they are using, what is essential and start with that list.

“We really worked to engage our teachers and build lead teachers and get them involved in the process at every one of our [schools]. We asked them: what are you using? What’s important to you? What’s essential? Then, we built a list of as many things we could think of and started with that list.” - Andy Fekete, Instructional Technology Specialist at Indian Prairie District 204

Provide a centralized place to view approved tools: Once you've received teacher feedback, review tools through a curriculum and instructional lens and consider any other relevant evidence. Then, organize your tools in a centralized repository for teachers to easily access, and see what is approved and safe for use. 

Give teachers a way to request new, vetted tools: It’s possible that some tools teachers use regularly no longer meet compliance. Give them an avenue to request a new product and visibility of where their request stands in the approval process. 

Remove any guesswork: Your product library should make it obvious to teachers what is and isn’t approved for use. Make it clear how product decisions were made, how student data privacy plays a role, and offer resources for how to safely and appropriately use products. 

Make compliance work part of your existing edtech ecosystem

Student data privacy work can be complex and time consuming for both teachers and administrators. It’s helpful to weave compliance requirements and processes into your entire edtech ecosystem, rather than doing this work independently. Incorporating teacher input throughout compliance work also helps tie teacher and learning goals with technology goals, intentionally building a bridge between the two. 

A comprehensive edtech effectiveness system helps ease the burden for educators by incorporating key pieces they need to meet compliance directly alongside other edtech initiatives. This includes: 

• Surfacing usage data to build an inventory of approved and previously unknown tools.

• A public product library that lists approval statuses.

• Customizable product request forms and a single place for requests.

• The ability to invite providers to complete applications.

Technology leaders who have done this work emphasize the importance of engaging the community from the very beginning, noting that the transparency helped align teachers, students and families with the goals of and requirements given to the district. By offering insight into compliance work, families can better support students at home.

If you’re ready to bring compliance work into your existing edtech ecosystem, contact our team. We’d love to speak with you.