...Google's U.S. educational partnerships are possible thanks in part to
school districts' reliance on the government's reinterpretation of an
obscure 1970s-era student privacy law.
The law, the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act or FERPA, requires schools to get
written consent from parents before sharing personal information about
students in many cases or risk federal education dollars. But it has an
exception for sharing data with "school officials" who have a
"legitimate educational interest" in the data.
When it was first
enacted, that meant someone who was
actually employed by the school
district, according to Joel Reidenberg, a Fordham University law
professor who has researched student data privacy.
But changes in how
the Department of Education interpreted the law in recent years now
allow almost any individual or organization that contracts with a school
district for some sort of educational function to be termed a "school
official," he said.
In 2008, the "school official" exemption was
extended to cover contractors because it was "critical" to establish
rules for "non-consensual disclosures" as schools outsource more
functions, according to an
analysis
of the changes from the department. To qualify for the designation,
companies are supposed to provide a service the district would otherwise
do itself and are held to the same general rules for use and
restrictions on disclosing student data that govern traditional school
officials....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/12/30/google-a-school-official-this-regulatory-quirk-can-leave-parents-in-the-dark/
