Student Privacy
Uinta County School District #1 shares student data with various outside agencies, vendors, and service providers. Data is shared in accordance with applicable State and Federal law, and is shared to further the district’s educational goals.
This page describes how the District handles issues of student privacy and how we comply with certain regulations such as FERPA and COPPA.
FERPA – Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
FERPA prohibits the school district, and those services that we contractually enter into agreements with, from disclosing personally identifiable information from students’ education records without the consent of a parent or eligible student, unless an exception to FERPA’s general consent rule applies, The general consent exceptions require a school to provide certain privacy protections for those education records that it does maintain, either onsite or offsite.
Google Apps for Education is fully compliant with FERPA, as are the numerous other services we contractually use, such as PowerSchool, IXL Learning, DreamBox, Amplify (online language arts curriculum), HMH McGraw Hill (used by 6-12 students) and Canvas.
In the specific case of Google Apps for Education, this comes from our usage agreement:
The parties acknowledge that (a) Customer Data may include personally identifiable information from education records that are subject to FERPA (“FERPA Records”); and (b) to the extent that Customer Data includes FERPA Records, Google will be considered a “School Official” (as that term is used in FERPA and its implementing regulations) and will comply with FERPA.
There is absolutely no advertising, user tracking, or user data monitoring with Google Apps for Education. All data in Google Apps for Education is owned solely by the school district and it is totally unviewable by Google, even though they host the platform. Note that “standard” Google Apps in a personal account, or Google Apps for Business, does not comply with FERPA.
COPPA – Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
COPPA applies to commercial companies and limits their ability to collect personal information from children under 13. Only for-profit websites can violate COPPA. A school district cannot violate COPPA because we a not a for-profit website nor do we offer for-profit services. However, we are cognizant of the requirements of COPPA and how it affects the services we purchase and use.
By default, advertising and data tracking is turned off for Google Apps for Education users. No personal student information is collected for commercial purposes. If parents do not sign an opt out form, the school has permission to act as an agent for parents in the collection of information within the school context. The school may only use student information for education purposes.
Certain applications within Google Apps for Education require a minimum age (Google Plus being one example). These are turned off for elementary students and for students in the sixth and seventh grade, and they cannot be accessed by them. The core services in Google Apps for Education (email, calendar, Drive) do not “knowingly collect” student information and do not make any use of the information that is entered (like content of documents or email). As another precaution all students Kindergarten through 5th grade email is set up for internal use only.
COPPA allows public school districts to act as an “agent” in approving registrations and information sharing in certain cases as this, as long as the parent is given an opt-out.
Content Filtering
To comply with federal law, the District employs several methods of Internet content filtering and monitoring. For more information on content filtering, visit our Content Filtering page.
Administrative Services
Detailed student data (such as demographics, attendance, grades, transcripts, test scores, etc) is shared with these services. Data is shared in accordance with law, with educational partners, or for hosted student data systems used by the district (library management, food service, etc.)
PowerSchool: This is our SIS (Student Information System) that records and coordinates all student information.
Naviance: Online service that helps high school students align high school academics with post-graduation goals. Naviance is hosted by the vendor.
Wyoming Department of Education (WDE): We share data with the WDE in accordance with State law and requirements. The WDE may share data with outside agencies according to their policies and law.
WY-TOPP: Wyoming State standardized testing. Student demographic data and test results are shared in accordance with State law.
Level Data: Service provider that provides automation between PowerSchool and many of are digital content providers to create users.
Destiny: Library management database hosted in-district.
MealTime: This is the district tool for food services in managing meals, and tracking the free and reduced lunch program.
Educators Handbook: This tool the district uses to track discipline across the district for school, district and state reporting.
Bell Photography: Service that manages student photos
Clever: Online service that assists in account management across different subscriptions and platforms.