Student Data Privacy – Frequently Asked Questions
How do we protect student data?
Swanton Local School District believes that a safe learning environment extends beyond the classroom and into the digital world. Technology has the power to transform education, but it must never come at the cost of a student’s privacy.
We are dedicated to maintaining a secure, transparent, and compliant digital ecosystem where students can explore and grow without fear of their personal information being misused. Our districts data privacy philosophy aligns to Ohio Senate Bill 29, FERPA, COPPA, CIPA, and many more state and federal laws.
We hold ourselves to the highest standards of data stewardship, ensuring that our platform is a safe space for educational growth.
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Education First: We use student data strictly for educational purposes and to improve the learning experience—never for targeted advertising or profiling.
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Data Minimization: We only collect the specific data points necessary to support student learning and school functionality.
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Safety & Security: We employ enterprise-grade encryption and rigorous security audits to ensure student records remain confidential and protected.
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Transparency for Parents: We believe families should have a clear window into what data is collected and how it is used.
How do we evaluate resources?
Check out our Data Privacy Workflow.
How to keep my personal data safe?
Keep Your Software Up to Date
Criminals look for weak points to exploit before software companies can fix them. So, update the software programs on your computer, tablet, and mobile phone as soon as possible when a newer version comes out. Software updates often contain critical patches and protections against security threats.
Turn on automatic updates to automatically update your
- Security software
- Internet browser
- Operating system
- Mobile apps
Secure Your Home Wi-Fi Network
Your router is the access point between your devices and the internet. If malware gets onto any device connected to your home network, it can spread to other devices connected to the same network. Read How To Secure Your Home Wi-Fi Network to learn how to make your router and your network more secure.
Protect Your Online Accounts with Strong Passwords and Two-Factor Authentication
Your online accounts may contain a lot of your personal information. Protect them with a strong password that’s hard to guess and turn on two-factor authentication.
Passwords
When it comes to passwords, you have a few options:
- create your own password
- choose an automatically generated password
- use a password manager
Create your own password. If you create your own password, make it long. Aim for at least 15 characters. Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Since a long password can be hard to remember, you may find it easier to use a passphrase. A passphrase is a series of words separated by spaces. If you use a passphrase
- make sure it consists of random words
- avoid using common phrases, song lyrics, or movie quotes that are easy for a hacking program to guess
Choose an automatically generated password. Studies show that people aren’t good at creating and remembering strong passwords. You can have your browser or device create a password for you. Here’s more info on how that works:
Use a password manager. A third-party password manager also can create a strong password. To find a reputable password manager, read expert reviews. Make sure the password for your password manager is strong. And protect it like you do your other passwords.
Strong passwords can be hard to remember. But your browser and device can save your password. So can your password manager. And they can auto-populate your password the next time you log in to a website or app.
Use Two-factor Authentication
Using a strong password is an important step in protecting your account from hackers. But even strong passwords are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Using two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your account. A hacker who steals your password can’t log in to your account without the second authentication factor.
The most common type of two-factor authentication is a verification passcode you get by text message or email. This one-time passcode is typically six digits or longer and expires automatically.
The more secure types of two-factor authentication are an authenticator app or a security key. Choose one of these methods for more protection if you have the option.
Pick Security Questions Only You Can Answer
When you create an account, you may have to give answers to a few security questions. Some sites may periodically ask you to answer these questions as a security measure to confirm your identity. You also may have to answer them if you need to reset your password.
Hackers could try to guess your answers to get into your account, so pick security questions only you can answer.
- Avoid questions with a limited number of responses that hackers can guess — like the color of your first car.
- Avoid questions with answers that someone could find online or in public records — like your zip code, birthplace, or mother’s maiden name.
If you can’t avoid those questions, treat them like a password and use random and long answers. Make sure the question and answer are unique, not one that you use on other sites. And be sure you can remember your answers.
Protect Yourself from Attempts To Steal Your Information
It’s also important to know when someone is trying to trick you into giving them your personal information. Scammers send phishing emails or text messages to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment that downloads malware. Don’t click on a link in an unexpected email or text. Instead, contact the company using a phone number or website you know is real.
Know What To Do if Something Goes Wrong
If you discover an issue, it’s important to act quickly. Find out what to do if someone hacked your email or social media account or if you think you may have installed malware.
If you think someone is using your personal information, go to IdentityTheft.gov to report it and get a personalized recovery plan.
What is Data Privacy?
Data privacy refers to an individual’s right to control how personal information about them is collected and used, particularly by digital systems. It consists of two elements: confidentiality and security. Confidentiality refers to restricting authorized collection, access, use, and transfer of an individual’s personal data without their informed and affirmative consent. Security refers to keeping personal data effectively protected from unauthorized access by third parties. Both are necessary for maintaining data privacy.
What is Senate Bill 29?
Ohio Senate Bill 29 (SB 29) is a 2024 law focused on student data privacy, requiring schools and educational technology (EdTech) providers to protect student data, not sell it for commercial use, and notify parents about data collection and potential breaches, ensuring tighter controls on monitoring school devices and handling student information. Effective October 24, 2024, it sets strict rules for data security, limits tracking on school-issued devices, and gives districts tools to comply with parent transparency demands.
What is a (N)DPA?
A Data Privacy Agreement (DPA) from the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) is a standardized, legally-backed contract for schools and edtech vendors, streamlining data protection by setting common rules for student data use, security, advertising limits, and breach notifications, based on the SDPC’s National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA) model. It ensures vendors act as school officials under FERPA and SB29, protecting data and reducing lengthy one-off negotiations for districts.
The Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC), a special interest group of the non-profit Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, is proud to announce the release of the National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA), version 2, which has been further developed to streamline application contracting and set common expectations between schools/districts and marketplace providers.
The NDPA version 2 has been developed by the 28 state Alliances addressing common obligations across the U.S. as well as their specific state needs, and this release incorporates feedback from Alliance leaders and Vendor Community Members, and has been reviewed by legal representatives through A4L Community Member Review. It is designed to address common student data privacy concerns and streamline the educational application contracting processes for schools/districts who do not have the legal or fiscal resources and vendors who previously had to sign “one off” contracts with each of the over 13,000 US school districts. While the NDPA allows for any state specific legislative requirements, the majority of the privacy expectations are standardized and can be used by any entity as part of their Terms of Service Agreements.