resource Approval Process

Online privacy is more important than it has ever been.  It is imperative that we keep our students safe, and it's important to know that we have laws that govern schools and educators:

• COPPA- Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

• FERPA- Family Educational Right to Privacy Act

These laws apply to online sites, apps, and extensions used in the classroom.  Examples:  Brain Pop (site), Flipgrid (app), and Screencastify (extension). 

There is a free 45 minute online course for educators about student online privacy.  Please visit commonsense.org to review.

Please be aware that for most resources, parent consent is required for students under the age of 13, and sometimes is needed for students under 18 as well. For that reason, a parent consent form will be required to be signed by all students in the district. 

For us to remain compliant with the COPPA and FERPA requirements listed above, all resources used in the classroom must be approved that require a student login, or where data is uploaded. The process for approval is outlined below.

Before taking any steps, you should first check the List of Approved Resources to see if that resource has already been approved or denied. Please note that the Resource Catalog only includes resources for sites, apps, and extensions that require a student to login, or ones where student data must be uploaded.

If you do not see the resource listed in the Resource Catalog, you should request permission to use the resource from your site administrator. Once your site administrator has approved it for use, please see the graphic below for next steps:

Submitted educational resources are run through the CMS Educational Resource Evaluation Rubric and receive a score.  The app is either approved or denied, based on their compliance with federal law and CMS Educational standards.  When a decision is made, the application will be added to our Resource Catalog.