In this age of measureless digital information and ubiquitous electronic access, it’s important for all educators to be aware of the 3 Federal laws governing student rights and privacy, especially regarding online access: FERPA, COPPA, and CIPA.

For most educators, student privacy relates to student grades or publishing class photos, but a School Librarian has to adopt a more expansive view of student rights due to the responsibilities of our job. But, before we address what a School Librarian needs to know about student privacy, let’s look more closely at the purpose of those 3 Federal laws and how each one affects us.

ABOUT FERPA

FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, has been around since 1974. It’s purpose is to protect the privacy of a student’s education records. It’s impact on us as educators is that it gives us permission to publish student work and photos, but without last names or any personally identifiable information.

Between September and December of 2016, the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) conducted focus groups regarding teacher training on student privacy. They discovered that, while schools and districts encourage the use of technology applications, there was wide variation on vetting what teachers can use in their classrooms, with ‘free’ resources often left to the teacher’s discretion. With that in mind, it’s especially important for educators to consider COPPA.

ABOUT COPPA

COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, took effect in 2000, and forbids websites from collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 unless they obtain verifiable parental permission. It’s why websites ask for birth dates to create an account and many refuse to create one if the applicant is under age 13 (so they don’t have to verify parent permission). In rulings since 2013, personal information also includes videos, audio files, and geolocation that can identify a child. (NOTE: COPPA is not COPA, the Act regarding pornography that never became law.)

COPPA also allows under-age-13 students to use secured online services contracted by the state or school district, such as Gaggle student email or Google Apps for Education. Also, COPPA permits schools to act as “agents” for parents, which means they can get signed permission slips from parents so students can register for a public online service—if you do this, be sure your school/district has written parent permission!

I vehemently discourage students from using a fake birth year to create online accounts—it’s breaking the law! For my online Library Lessons I only use contract services or public sites that don’t need students to create accounts.

ABOUT CIPA

CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act, enacted in 2000 and administered by the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission, covers the e-rate discount for schools; it requires filters against harmful content and restricts disclosure of a minor’s personal information. CIPA was augmented by the Broadband Data Improvement Act (2008) and by the FCC (2011) to incorporate the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act-Subtitle A: Promoting a Safe Internet for Children. Those direct the FTC to create a national public awareness campaign about safe Internet use by children and requires schools to educate students about Internet safety, including student privacy.

Download a FREE 2-page PDF of Internet Laws In A Nutshell to hand out to your colleagues.

SCHOOL LIBRARIANS & STUDENT PRIVACY

School Librarians have a unique position in our buildings because for us student privacy is inextricably linked with intellectual freedom and freedom to access information.

• Intellectual freedom is the right to freely publish personal creations in any media format. Should we treat a child’s intellectual freedom for expression the same as we would an adult’s? Just as we monitor the verbal and written language and the behavior of young ones in our schools, so too, educators often act in loco parentis to constrain public products that reflect inappropriate youthful expressions; however, we need to be careful that our “editing” of blog posts, webpages, videos, and other online products is truly monitoring and not censorship.
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• Freedom of access is a person’s right to obtain and read, view, or listen to media without restraint, and this includes what students choose from the school library. Student privacy protects this right, so librarians wouldn’t divulge the books a student has checked out, except to a parent. (To protect student privacy, my district’s library automation system only keeps track of current checkouts—once an item is returned, it’s removed from the student’s record.)
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  Conversely, school librarians have a responsibility to choose print and online resources that support the state and district curricula, so we are often in the precarious position of using negative selection policies, not as filtering or censorship, but because funds must be spent advantageously according to the age and literacy of students.
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• Filtering freedom of access for a child depends on where the access takes place. In a public library all information is available to the general public, and, while resources are organized to minimize psychological danger to children, it is necessarily the parent’s duty, not the library’s, to monitor what the child reads, hears or views. The situation changes in the public school setting: schools are regarded as in loco parentis to act for the best interests of the child, and CIPA law requires filtering of online access for schools to qualify for a discounted e-rate.

Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web that has had such an impact on our lives, shares his thoughts in support of filtering in his book Weaving the Web (HarperCollins, 1999):

A nation’s laws can restrict content only in that country; filters can block content no matter where it comes from on the Web. Most important, filters block content for users who object to it without removing the material from the Web. It remains available to those who want to see it. (p.125) An individual clearly has the personal right to filter anything that comes at him, just as he would do with regular mail. (p.134)

ARE YOU PROTECTING YOUR STUDENTS’ PRIVACY?

A School Librarian’s post on the LM_NET listserv highlighted our added responsibility about student privacy and the need to closely monitor our actions, as well as those of any library  associates, whether paraprofessional, student aide, or parent volunteer:

I’m curious about making calls home about overdue books. …my aide insists on making calls while she’s at the circulation desk. Unfortunately, her voice carries. I’m worried about privacy and FERPA violations. (Lori Fultz)

Fortunately the School Librarian’s legal guru, Dr. Carol Simpson, responded:

It is a violation of FERPA to divulge a student’s “education record” which is defined to be information that the school “maintains” about the student. What books a child has checked out is certainly an education record. Only school personnel with a “need to know” the information may have access to the information, and that certainly wouldn’t include students in the library or teachers within earshot (even the student’s teacher unless all efforts to locate a missing book through the student and his family have failed). The parent can waive the FERPA right (such as a parent discussing the book while in the library with others within earshot) but otherwise can only be divulged if the book information is defined as “directory information” or the parent gives permission in writing.

Students’ privacy granted by FERPA along with their right to freedom of access puts School Librarians in a position of trust that we can’t take for granted. Even a small thing like overdue books is an issue, and is one of the reasons I designed my overdue bookmarks—so I could personally connect with a student quietly and privately during invited checkouts. (Get a free sample by joining my e-Group!)

Updated 2025.
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