Digital Privacy in MSD15

Effective July 1, 2021, school districts will be required by the Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA) to provide additional guarantees that student data is protected when collected by educational technology companies, and that data is used for beneficial purposes only (105 ILCS 85). 

The District’s privacy standards are established in accordance with applicable federal and state law and Board policy and are intended to reflect the District’s mission and values. These guiding concepts are intended to provide direction about many elements of the District’s practice, including the educational value of instructional technology, the primacy of children’s safety, and the importance of family rights. 

The District utilizes filters and firewalls to prevent students from accessing harmful information on the Internet as well as to protect the privacy of student information. 

The District also uses the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) to manage data privacy agreements in accordance with SOPPA.  The SDPC is a resource registry developed by a collaborative of schools, districts, regional, territories and state agencies, policy makers, trade organizations and marketplace providers that helps determine whether websites, software, or apps are safe to use as part of instructional programming. In addition to the approved vendor list, MSD15 is part of the Illinois Student Privacy Alliance Consortium.  The Consortium created a webpage that lists the agreements to which the District provides links for students and parents from its website.  As part of the listing process, the Consortium also extracts the data elements that the vendor has indicated may be part of the data accessed by their software and makes that list available on the website it creates.  You can see all the outside agreements with the District Vendors and data elements subject to being shared with each vendor on the webpage that the Consortium has created here. 

Directory Information 

The school may release certain directory information regarding students, except that a student’s parent(s)/guardian(s) may prohibit the student’s directory information. Directory information is limited to: 

• Name 

• Address 

• Grade level 

• Birth date and place 

• Parent(s)/guardian(s)’ names, addresses, electronic mail addresses, and telephone numbers 

• Photographs, videos, or digital images used for informational or news-related purposes (whether by a media outlet or by the school) of a student participating in school or school sponsored activities, organizations, and athletics that have appeared in school publications, such as yearbooks, newspapers, or sorting or fine arts programs 

• Academic awards, degrees and honors 

• Information in relation to school-sponsored activities, organizations, and athletics 

• Major field of study 

• Period of attendance in school 

Parent Information 

Parents play a key role in overseeing the online safety of their children. ConnectSafely, a nonprofit dedicated to educating users of connected technology about  safety, privacy, security and digital wellness, developed a series of parent guides to help parents navigate the digital world with their children.