I’m excited to announce that I completed the Student Privacy Train-the-Trainer Program for K12 from the Future Privacy Forum.

The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), is a nonprofit focused on privacy and provides the knowledge and skills to make you a student privacy expert while connecting you with a peer network and student privacy experts from across the country. I first came into contact with the work of the FPF and Student Privacy Compass as I cited them in my blog and weekly newsletter,

The training was created to help school attorneys, state and local education agencies, and faculty at colleges of teacher education become student privacy experts. I applied for and completed the training to help me better understand the changing legal and edtech privacy landscape.

Increasingly I’ve found myself writing more about privacy and security as technology changes most aspects of our society. This includes the amount of information schools collect and maintain on students. Since 2013, over 130 new student privacy laws have passed in 41 states, with more bills and regulations being rolled out each year and in 2020, the shift to hybrid and distance learning created new privacy concerns.

Most of the guidance I’ve shared has been gleaned as I read and learn online. This training will help me better convey best practices as we address the privacy of our youth as they interact online and in hybrid spaces.

This is a challenge that is not just legal. This problem connects policy, people, and practices as we adapt to digital spaces.

I’m looking forward to speaking up more about these topics in my future work.