Schools grapple with data privacy

As school leaders turn to software companies for help in collecting and storing student data in the cloud, privacy advocates worry about what will happen to the information -- and whether it might be used for marketing purposes.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act governs the use and disclosure of students’ personal information, but it can only penalize schools for non-compliance. The law doesn’t include any direct authority over software providers -- which is one reason many policy makers think it’s time to update FERPA for the digital age.