National Context

There are two federal acts that work to protect students, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule 0f 1998 (COPPA). FERPA applies to public schools and violations of FERPA can lead to loss of all federal funding, while COPPA applies to private vendors such as the College Board and Pearsons (Haston, 2019)(Abilock & Abilock, 2016). The existence of these laws are an important step towards protecting student information, however, they are not updated frequently enough to properly protect student information. FERPA, for example, hasn’t updated its definition of an education record since 1974 (Haston, 2019). Due to this, modern examples of an education record, such as electronic information, are not explicitly protected. It also fails to address student privacy in the context of social media and online learning, which is becoming increasingly relevant (Haston, 2019).

https://securityboulevard.com/2020/07/ferpa-compliance-how-to-obtain-it/

https://ikeepsafe.org/certification/coppa/

            Local Context 

One act that is specific to Illinois that addresses student privacy and data protection is the Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA). When the act was created, it sparked controversy as it waived restrictions on the sale of personal student information to for-profit organizations such as the ACT or College Board (Illinois Families for Public Schools, 2018a).  This bill was further weakened in a 2018 revision that allowed student information to be collected during standardized tests. This information was then used to create student profiles, which was then be sold to colleges and used in undisclosed algorithms to select ideal applicants. Information included citizenship, religion, social security number, GPA, high school course work and interests, family’s education, income, military background, and behavioral information (Illinois Families for Public Schools, 2018). This sparked much pushback from the community and, one year later, the bill was reformed to become less lenient and provide more transparency on how the schools, vendors, and the Illinois State Board of Education collect and use student data (Illinois Families for Public Schools, 2019c).