Today school districts struggle to incorporate required provisions on Student Data Privacy in their contracts with digital providers. Lack of legal resources and no access to compliant agreements are two reasons for this. California Education Code section 49073.1 has specific requirements for contracts with vendors working with student data and is meant to protect that data.
Also, the use of applications in the classroom is widespread and teachers need a way to determine whether an app is safe to use. The district needs to inventory and help maintain the applications used throughout the organization.
CITE developed the California Student Privacy Alliance (CSPA) , a partnership with the Access 4 Learning Community's Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC). CITE has joined this consortium on behalf all schools in the state of California.
The free membership to CSPA addresses:
A statewide agreement that districts can use to ensure that the vendor is aware of and complies with California's student data privacy laws.
A Searchable database of applications and vendors who have signed the statewide agreement with at least one school or district.
This database creates transparency for teachers, parents, and others to determine if an application is compliant.
It also creates an inventory of apps being used. and a way for teachers to request that a new application be vetted by their organization.