Ohio Senate Bill 29: Student Data

Recently, Ohio state legislators passed Senate Bill 29, which focuses on student data privacy. The new law, which took effect at the end of October, requires Ohio school districts to take certain actions and protections around our students' data when working with outside vendors, and specifically:

• Acknowledge school district ownership of student data
• Contain provisions prohibiting unnecessary access to student data
• Restrict the use of student data
• Return or destruction of student data upon conclusion of contract
• Restrictions on how a technology provider may sell, share, or disseminate educational records

The new law also requires school districts to notify parents and guardians when monitoring student devices owned by the school district. Below is our notice of general monitoring:

General Monitoring of School-Issued Devices

Please be aware that the District, directly or through a technology provider, is electing to generally, monitor all school-issued devices (as this term is defined by R.C. 3319.325). Monitoring will include these features: location tracking and student interactions with school issued devices (e.g., keystrokes and web-browsing activity).

The District generally monitors these features for the noncommercial education purpose of instruction, technical support, and/or exam proctoring. Additionally, these features are generally monitored as a necessary precaution for preventing and/or responding to threats to life or safety.