Maintaining Data Security: Four Key Considerations for Administrators

The incorporation of technology into education has been a force for positive change, bringing units to life and building more efficient communication. But with the emergence of technological advancements relating to data comes the need to consider students’ virtual information- and how to keep it secure. 

Data privacy in education is extremely important, and maintaining students’ information privacy is a chief priority for school administrators. Take a look at some crucial considerations for admin when it comes to data.

Become familiar with the law. 

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It enumerates who has access to students’ information, and when. Only his or her parents can access a student’s educational record until the student is of legal age. There are specific instances in which schools can share information without permission. Some examples of these circumstances include: school officials with legitimate educational interest, other schools to which a student is transferring, or appropriate parties with connection to financial aid to a student. 

To read more about FERPA, click here.

The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) outlines restrictions for the process when students might be asked for information as part of federally funded surveys or evaluations. Sometimes, surveys are used to help gather information and better understand certain issues facing students- including, drug and alcohol use and personal conduct. Schools are required to show parents the survey materials and give parents choices regarding content. 

To read more about PPRA, click here.

Establish best practices for the classroom.

Administrators are responsible for educating staff on best practices for data in the classroom. Teachers should be instructed to keep information secure: passwords and other student records should be kept in a safe, designated location. This applies to both physical and technological data. Teach educators how to help their students make good data decisions; these can include keeping passwords to themselves and asking adults before downloading apps. 

Learn more about how parents and teachers can help protect students’ data.

Always use demo data.

Staff training often requires the use of data for instruction. This can apply to learning a new program, analysis of testing data, or assessing academic benchmarks. When using data for demonstrations is necessary, the data itself- in training- does not need to be authentic. Always choose to use pretend data to ensure students’ privacy. 

Have a plan for data destruction.

After data has been utilized (or becomes irrelevant), it should be removed. However, this is not as simple as merely hitting “delete”. Digital data is difficult to completely erase as both storage and recovery techniques are innovative. Because of this, schools should look to methods of permanent data destruction. FERPA does not provide direct instruction regarding data destruction, nor does it require that particular methods of destruction be utilized. It’s considered best practice to have a third party work to clear, purge, and destroy this information. 

Data destruction and disk erasure are services offered by Arey Jones Educational Services.

Education has been forever changed by technology. Integrate these tips to guarantee that student data remains safe in your school.