SDPC represented at FTC Future of COPPA Workshop

WASHINGTON - Oct. 9, 2019 - PRLog -- Steve Smith, co-Founder of the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) and member of the SDPC Governance Group, was invited to participate in the FTC "Future of COPPA Workshop" held in Washington DC, on October 7, 2019. Steve participated on the panel entitled "Definitions, Exceptions and Misconceptions".  In addition to highlighting the great work of the SDPC, Steve emphasized the need to clarify the conflicting requirements where COPPA and FERPA overlap when employing EdTech solutions in schools with children under the age of 13. This continues to be a top area of confusion for schools across the country.

Steve urged the FTC to consider more closely aligning any COPPA rewrites with FERPA, specifically calling attention to the School Official exception and the data protection requirements included there. "Any updates to COPPA should align to and leverage the FERPA protections already in place and clearly establish realistic operational requirements placed upon schools while not hindering schools' ability to utilize innovative tools to support teaching and learning in today's classrooms", said Steve during the closing statements of the panel.

The FTC is still soliciting public comment on the COPPA Rule until October 23, 2019.  All SDPC members are encouraged to submit comments. Public comments can be submitted online here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/07/25/2019-15754/request-for-public-comment-on-the-federal-trade-commissions-implementation-of-the-childrens-online.  An example letter submitted by Steve in support of COPPA alignment with FERPA is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jPchH9rilTr3MsQs893sBEKbIjk2oK6s/view?usp=sharing


About the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC)
The SDPC is a Special Interest Group of the Access 4 Learning Community.  It is designed to address the day-to-day, real-world multi-faceted issues that schools, states, territories and vendors face when protecting learner information. SDPC's vision is to develop common activities, artifacts, templates, tools and effective practices that can be leveraged through a unique collaborative of end users and marketplace providers working together.  For further information, visit https://privacy.A4L.org

About the Access 4 Learning Community
There is no other global community made up of educational marketplace product and service providers and the customers they serve, collaborating daily to address real word learning information and resource issues.  The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, previously the SIF Association, is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively address all aspects of learning information management and access to support learning. For further information, visit https://www.A4L.org