EdTech Institute

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5 min read

What Is FERPA and Why Does It Matter for Teachers?

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) is a federal law that protects student education records. For teachers, FERPA means you cannot share student information, grades, behavior records, or identifying details, with anyone except parents, authorized school staff, and the student (if over 18) without written consent.

What Student Data Can Teachers Legally Share?

Under FERPA, teachers can share student data only with:

• Parents or legal guardians of students under 18
• Authorized school staff with legitimate educational interest
• The student if they are 18 or older
• Third parties only with written parental consent
• Health or safety emergencies (limited exception)

Directory information (name, graduation date) may be shared unless parents opt out.

What 5 Questions Should You Ask Before Using Any EdTech Tool?

Before introducing any technology platform in your classroom, ask these critical questions:

1. Where is student data stored? (US servers vs. international)
2. Who owns the data students create? (School, company, or student?)
3. Can data be deleted upon request? (FERPA compliance requirement)
4. Does the tool share data with third parties? (Check privacy policy)
5. Is the tool COPPA compliant? (Required for students under 13)

You find a new quiz app that your students love. It is free, engaging, and saves you time on formative assessment. You sign up your whole class. Three months later, you discover the app has been collecting student location data, selling behavioral profiles to advertisers, and storing assessment results on servers with no clear data retention policy.

You did not mean to put your students at risk. You were trying to teach them effectively. But the edtech world is full of tools that trade student data for free access, and most teachers have never been told what to watch for.

This is not a scare piece. It is a practical guide to the data privacy decisions you are already making, whether you realize it or not.

Why Does This Fall on Teachers?

In theory, student data privacy is an institutional responsibility. Districts have technology departments, data governance policies, and procurement processes. In practice, teachers are making data privacy decisions every day, often without guidance.

Every time you create student accounts on a new platform, upload a class roster to a website, use an app that tracks student progress, or share student work on social media, you are making a data decision. These decisions carry real consequences, and the burden of understanding them should not fall entirely on you. But until districts catch up, it does.

What Does Student Data Actually Include?

Student data includes more than grades and test scores. Personally identifiable information, or PII, covers names, email addresses, student ID numbers, birthdates, photos, and anything that can identify a specific student. Academic data includes grades, assessment results, learning progress, and performance metrics. Behavioral data covers login times, time spent on tasks, click patterns, and response times. This is the category most people underestimate. Many edtech tools collect granular behavioral data that reveals far more about a student than their quiz scores do. Finally, metadata includes device type, location data, IP addresses, and usage patterns. Even when a tool does not ask for a student’s name, metadata can often be used to identify individuals.

What Five Questions Should You Ask Before Adopting Any EdTech Tool?

You do not need a law degree to make better data privacy decisions. These five questions will catch the majority of problems.

First, what data does this tool collect? Read the privacy policy, focusing on the data collection section. A quiz app needs your students’ answers. It does not need their GPS coordinates.

Second, who owns the data? Many free edtech tools claim ownership of content created on their platform. The data should belong to the student and the school, period. Look for clear language that says so.

Third, who can see the data? Check whether the tool shares data with third parties. A common formulation is “we may share data with trusted partners to improve our services.” Translated, your students’ information may be shared with companies you have never heard of.

Fourth, how long is the data stored? Some tools retain student data indefinitely, even after accounts are deleted. Look for a clear retention and deletion policy. Can you actually delete student data when the school year ends?

Fifth, is the tool FERPA and COPPA compliant? FERPA protects student education records. COPPA (the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) restricts data collection from children under 13. Any tool used in a school setting should comply with both. Look for explicit compliance statements, not vague references to “taking privacy seriously.” If a tool cannot clearly answer these five questions, do not use it with students.

What Are Mistakes That Create Real Risk?

Several common practices expose student data unnecessarily. When a tool requires email addresses and students do not have school accounts, some teachers use personal emails or create accounts using student names. If a tool requires email, use school-issued addresses or check whether teacher-managed accounts are available that do not require individual student emails.

Posting student work on social media or public platforms feels celebratory, but it creates a permanent digital record tied to a minor. Even with first names only, photos of student work combined with school names can identify individuals. Always get written parent consent before sharing student work publicly.

Free tools subsidize their costs somehow, and often the subsidy is student data. This does not mean every free tool is problematic, but the free tier deserves extra scrutiny. The privacy policy will tell you whether data collection is baked into the business model. Finally, do not assume a tool is safe because other teachers use it. Unless your district has an explicit approved tools list and a review process, you may be the first person at your school to actually read the privacy policy of a tool that dozens of teachers are already using.

How Do You Build a Privacy-Aware Classroom?

Students should know what data is being collected about them and why. When you introduce a new tool, explain what information it gathers and how it will be used. Walk students through the privacy policy highlights before they sign up. The conversations strengthen critical thinking about all the apps they use outside school, which is a media literacy skill that extends well beyond your classroom.

Keep a simple inventory of every digital tool you use with students, what data each collects, and whether it has been reviewed for privacy compliance. Update it each semester. Also adopt a default-to-minimal approach: if a tool works with anonymous logins, use them. If you can avoid uploading a class roster, avoid it. If a feature requires additional data collection and you do not need that feature, turn it off.

This week, pick the edtech tool you use most frequently. Find its privacy policy. Read the sections on data collection, sharing, and retention. If what you find concerns you, bring it to your administration. If there is no clear privacy policy at all, that is your answer.

You stumbled into a data privacy decision the moment you signed that class up for a quiz app. You are making these decisions every day. The question is whether you are making them intentionally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I post student work on social media or my class Instagram?
No, not without written parental consent. Even with first names only and school names, photos of student work can identify minors. The safest practice is to keep student work private unless you have explicit written permission from every parent.

Q: Is a popular edtech tool automatically FERPA compliant?
No. Just because many teachers use a tool doesn’t mean it meets legal requirements. Always check the vendor’s privacy policy and ask your school’s technology director whether the tool has been reviewed before signing up your class.

Q: What should I do if an edtech tool doesn’t have a clear privacy policy?
Don’t use it with students. If a company cannot clearly explain how it handles student data, it is not worth the risk. Choose a tool that provides transparent documentation about data collection, storage, and retention.

Q: Can I share student grades or behavior data with parents via email?
Yes, if it is their own child. FERPA allows you to share a student’s grades and records with their parents or legal guardians. Use secure email when possible and never share multiple students’ information in one email.

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