Student Data Privacy

Students in the Swampscott Public Schools use a wide variety of online tools as part of their education.  Some of these tools collect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to allow students to log in, track progress, personalize instruction and store data.  

Swampscott Public Schools is committed to protecting the privacy of our students. The Swampscott Public School District is a member of the Massachusetts Student Privacy Alliance (MSPA) whose goal it is to set standards and expectations around student privacy by implementing a common Student Data Privacy Agreement with vendors.  

All resources have been vetted for both educational alignment and student data privacy protections an a Data Privacy Agreement (DPA) is needed for each software title/company.  The Swampscott Public Schools joined the MSPA to manage and procure these agreements. Find out more information regarding the MSPA here.

The Swampscott Public Schools transitioned from Acceptance Use Policies to Responsible Use Policies for our students, faculty and staff.  In these policies are specifics guidelines for digital citizenship, data privacy and data security. Swampscott Public Schools has been working with the Massachusetts Student Privacy Alliance (MSPA) and our legal counsel since 2020 to develop a standardized data privacy agreement for all vendors that store any student information with personally identifiable information (PII).

• The Data Privacy Agreement requires all vendors to:

  • Follow the laws protecting students rights for data privacy 

    • CIPA Children's Internet Protection Act

    • COPPA Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

    • FERPA Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

    • PPRA    Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment

  • Ensure the school district retains ownership of all student data regardless of where the data resides.

  • Provide the school district notification of a data breach, if one should occur, within a specific time frame.

  • Not resell or use student information for any other purpose than the service it was intended. 

  • Provide the school district the right to audit the vendor for compliance.

  • Ensure industry best practices are being followed with respect to data privacy and data security.

The Swampscott Public School is working closely with The Education Cooperative (TEC) to facilitate the execution of these data privacy agreements with all vendors.  TEC represents a number of school districts across Massachusetts concerned with student data privacy.  Utilizing TEC's partnership with other school districts puts us in a stronger position when negotiating contract terms than going it alone and sends vendors a strong message that data privacy is an important issue we need to work on together to solve.
The Swampscott Public Schools has implemented an internal vetting process, so all new vendors get on-boarded only after a data privacy agreement is agreed to and fully executed.

View a current list of vendor data privacy agreements.