FERPA

My sister in law is a pharmacist and I always joke with her that if she tells me about her patients then I'll tell her about my students, ya know the whole HIPAA vs. FERPA thing. Obviously, we're always joking and we don't share actual information, just random crazy things that happen in our respective days. 

But, all jokes aside, it made me really think about FERPA and how it really regulates what we do with information we have about our students. I know that I never want to violate my students rights or put their personal information out for everyone, in anyway. So I usually think about it like this, "Would I want someone to see this if it were my information?"  

Just because kids don't have a strong social media presence doesn't mean that they don't need to be protected from it. We hear in PD all the time that information on our students is constantly trying to be stolen (which is WILD to me). Teaching these days comes with the added task of not only making sure our students are safe physically and emotionally, but also making sure that they are safe informationally as well. 

I know that FERPA has been around for a while (since 1974!), but it seems that there's an extra layer to it now with the heavy presence of social media in classrooms now. Just another thing to add to the teacher workload!! 

Comments

  1. The WeaveJuly 16, 2022 at 5:03 AM

    I hear ya! I am hyper aware of keeping my students protected and even get nervous sending class photos of activities through the Remind app.

    So, get this, my husband is in the car business, and obvi, they have all kinds of customer info, right? Well, there are laws protecting that information too - it just doesn't have a snazzy name like hippa or ferpa. BUT, they bascially get no training on what IS and what IS NOT allowed and they have to read up on it themselves and hope things don't change (they are constantly updating the law, apparently) and cannot plead ignorance if they break the law. It's crazy to me that the dealership doesn't train them on this and give them the "key ideas" or bullet points in common language so they are aware and can comply???? No - they have to read this 126 page legal document, that changes periodically.
    Insanity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kalei HoltJuly 17, 2022 at 5:25 PM

      Wild! Youʻd think theyʻd at least train them to protect their own buts. But I suppose they are protected somehow? Stress!!

      Delete
  2. Kalei HoltJuly 17, 2022 at 5:23 PM

    Such good insight! And love the family jokes. I think along similar lines when I post images that contain children (e.g. either my nephews or others I work with). For my family, I am more comfortable with sharing pictures of them. For children I work with, I am only comfortable with posting images of them if you canʻt identify them. I think it has something to do with respecting their and their familyʻs choices around online presence. This post also makes me think about the new duo sign-in I have to do for work. My team and I are all annoyed at the extra step. They say it is due to all youth we work with and protecting their data (which is also is wild to me that folks are trying to steal that- cʻmon world).

    ReplyDelete

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