Student Privacy Policy
California Laws Related to Student Privacy
Safeguarding Pupil Digital Records (AB 1584): Establishes a new section to the Education Code to provide local educational agencies (including school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools) with control to contract with third parties that provide digital educational software or services, including cloud-based services, for the digital storage, management, and retrieval of pupil records. Safeguards are required that limit the use of the pupil records, ensuring compliance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,[8] describing breach disclosure procedures, and more. This bill went into effect on January 1, 2015.
Privacy Rights for California Minors in the Digital World (SB 568): A new online statute for minors’ rights takes effect on January 1, 2015, that applies to California residents under 18 years of age. The statute prohibits marketing or advertising specified products and services (including alcoholic beverages, firearms, and tobacco) to minors and from knowingly using, disclosing, or compiling a minor’s personal information (or permitting a third party to do so). The statute also permits a minor to request the removal of certain content posted by the minor to various websites. This statute was intended to exceed existing online standards under the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA).[4] For example, a minor is defined by the new state law under SB 568 as any person under 18 years of age, whereas COPPA applies only to those under 13.
Pupil Records and Social Media (AB 1442): Restricts a school district, county education office, or charter school that gathers information from an enrolled pupil on social media from using such information for other than contractually obligated purposes, establishes certain prohibitions on the selling or sharing of information, and imposes other requirements related to the destruction of information. This bill went into effect on January 1, 2015.
Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SB 1177): Prohibits operators of websites and online services and applications used primarily for K–12 school purposes and designed and marketed for those purposes, from pursuing targeted advertising to students and their parents or legal guardians.[11] It also prohibits using covered information to build a profile of K–12 students, selling a student’s information, and disclosing certain types of information. The bill also imposes an obligation for operators to maintain reasonable security procedures and practices and to delete information requested by a school or district in certain circumstances. This bill went into effect on January 1, 2016.
National Laws Related to Student Privacy
The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was enacted by Congress in 2000 to address concerns about children's access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet. CIPA imposes certain requirements on schools or libraries that receive discounts for Internet access or internal connections through the E-rate program – a program that makes certain communications services and products more affordable for eligible schools and libraries. In early 2001, the FCC issued rules implementing CIPA and provided updates to those rules in 2011.
