Janelle Retka reports: The Yakima School District has filed a lawsuit in Yakima County Superior Court seeking permission to withhold confidential employee medical information in a public records request — some of which had already been released. The case, which involves drug screening paperwork for district employees and job applicants, raises questions about the state’s…
Category: Youth & Schools
School computer monitoring program makes botched debut
Michael S. Lockett reports: The Juneau School District is attempting to provide parents, students and school board members more information about a new computer monitoring program that was installed this school year without prior notification. JSD informed parents via email about Bark — software which monitors for “harmful” content including school shooters, self-harm, pornography and…
NZ: Case note 297084 [2019] NZPriv Cmr 11: Parents complain school mishandled their child’s sensitive medical data
I love reading case notes from Privacy Commissioners in other parts of the world to see how they apply their countries’ regulations. There’s a new decision from New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner that will probably be of interest to parents of American schoolchildren as it involves how school personnel handled a student’s medical information. Spoiler alert:…
Maryland privacy council tackles substandard student data protections
Ryan Johnston reports: Just three months after an audit of the Maryland Education Department’s data-storage practices found it was placing the personal information of 1.4 million students and 233,000 teachers at risk, a statewide council of Maryland education officials are trying to change the state’s data-privacy laws. Maryland’s new Student Data Privacy Council met for the first time…