Alissa Widman Neese reports;
A report that rates states on how well their laws protect the privacy of student data ranks Ohio’s efforts among the weakest.
Ohio finished in 40th place with a D-minus, and the only states that scored lower were those the report listed as not having approved any laws in the past six years.
But the Ohio Department of Education and groups helping school districts safeguard the sensitive student data they collect say the report doesn’t illustrate all the work being done across the state. That includes the state recently joining the Student Data Privacy Consortium, a group that shares free resources and strategies about how to secure data such as student grades, disciplinary actions, medical conditions and contact information.
The study itself has drawn criticism from some outside privacy experts. They say the measurements used in the report — released last month by the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy and the Network for Public Education, advocacy groups based in Colorado and New York, respectively — don’t provide a full picture of protections in many states.
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