Data Privacy and Security

At Whitesboro Central School, we strive to provide the highest quality education to your child. In doing so, we collect and utilize data in a variety of ways to provide learning resources, measure student progress, tailor learning strategies, make operational decisions, and meet state and federal reporting requirements, just to name a few. This data, when collected and utilized appropriately by our skilled team of educators, can be a powerful tool to enhance your child’s educational experience. Knowing the level of impact this information can have, our District puts a heavy focus on its protection and your child’s privacy. We have made significant investments in both time and resources to implement a quality, modern cybersecurity program, leveraging the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF).

You can also view our district’s Data Security and Privacy Policy HERE for more details.

DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

Adam Cleveland

Director of Information & Instructional Technlogy

Parents' Rights

Parents’ rights with regard to the disclosure and utilization of their child’s information are identified primarily in the following statutes:

Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which can be viewed HERE
New York State Education Law Section 2-d (NYS Ed Law 2-d), which can be viewed HERE and its associated NYSED Part 121 Regulations, which can be viewed HERE

Whitesboro Central School is required to annually notify parents of their rights under FERPA; that information can be found in our FERPA Notification Policy HERE. Under FERPA, the District may identify certain data elements as Directory Information, which may be disclosed without obtaining prior parental consent. Parents are provided with the opportunity to opt out of certain Directory Information disclosures by filling out the form HERE. The data identified as Directory Information by our District is:

Student’s name
Address
Telephone number
Email address
Date and place of birth
Name of the student’s parents
Student’s home school district
Student’s class designation
Participation in extracurricular activities
Dates of attendance
Student’s achievement awards and honors

Most recent previous educational agency attended by the student

Photographs
Audio recordings
Video images of students (with or without sound) engaged in routine activities

Additional FERPA Form Links: Inspection of Student Records, Correction of Student Records

NYS Ed Law 2-d requires educational agencies to adopt and share with parents their rights under the law, otherwise known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, which can be viewed HERE.

Parents' Right (continued)

In the event of an incident involving the unauthorized disclosure of student Personally Identifiable Information (PII), the District is required to notify the New York State Education Department’s Chief Privacy Officer within 10 days and affected parents, eligible students, and/or teachers within 60 days. Should the District become aware of the unauthorized disclosure of student information affecting your child, you can expect to receive notification from the District containing the following information:

A description of the unauthorized release
Dates of the incident
Date of discovery of the incident
Description of the types of PII affected
Description of the agency’s investigation
Contact information for further assistance

Parents, eligible students (students who are at least 18 years of age), principals, teachers, and employees of an educational agency may file a complaint about a possible breach or improper disclosure of student data and/or protected teacher or principal data. Complaints may be made directly to our Data Protection Officer by utilizing the form found HERE.

All complaints of this nature are taken seriously by our BOCES and will be investigated as immediately and thoroughly as possible. Individuals may always wish to file a complaint directly with the New York State Education Department’s Chief Privacy Officer and can do so HERE.

Software Inventory and Supplemental Information

Third-party contractors who receive student information must abide by certain identified measures to support the protection of student privacy. Whitesboro Central School posts an inventory of our contractors that collect/process student information along with Supplemental Information for each of these contracts. Supplemental Information can be viewed HERE and includes the following information:

Exclusive purpose for data use
Subcontractor management processes
Contract duration
Data destruction practices
Data accuracy challenge procedures
Data storage / processing locations
Security protections in place
Encryption practices

Please note, where a contractor or information system is listed in our inventory and no supplemental information is displayed, the District is in the process of pursuing the necessary contract language with that entity.

Other Applicable Laws

In addition to FERPA and NYS Ed Law 2-d, the following statutes also govern our activities with regard to student and other sensitive information protection:

Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) - PPRA defines the rules states and school districts must follow when administering tools like surveys, analysis, and evaluations funded by the US Department of Education to students. It requires parental approval to administer many such tools and ensures that school districts have policies in place regarding how the data collected through these tools can be used. Our PPRA opt-out letter can be found HERE.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) – COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites, games, mobile apps or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age.

Office of Information Technology Services (NYS Technology Law) – NYS Technology Law establishes the Office of Information technology services to strategically manage the planning and development of technological resources in conjunction with state and local government agencies. NYS Technology Law also includes specific provisions for the use of biometric identifying technology in schools pending additional research by the NYS Education Department.

In This Section