Trust and safety

Before You Accept Another School App: Seven Questions to Ask About Your Child’s Data

Back-to-school technology can collect names, photographs, locations, messages, learning records, and behavioral information. Families deserve to understand what is being used and why.

A new school year can require an entire collection of digital tools.

There may be separate applications for assignments, attendance, transportation, meals, messaging, photographs, sports, healthcare, volunteer coordination, and after-school activities.

Some are required by the school. Others are recommended by a teacher, team, parent group, or outside provider. Accounts may be created by the school, the parent, or the child.

The volume makes it easy to press Accept and keep going.

But every application creates another place where information about your child may be collected, stored, shared, or retained.

Families need a simple way to understand the system.

If You Read Only One Thing

School-related applications are not interchangeable. I suggest recording what each one collects, why it is required, who controls the account, and what happens to the data when your child stops using it.

Your Action Steps

One option is to create a school-technology inventory containing:

  • Application or portal name

  • Purpose

  • Child associated with it

  • School, class, or activity

  • Whether it is required

  • Whether the school or family created the account

  • Parent and child usernames

  • Recovery email address or phone number

  • Privacy-policy link

  • Date permission was provided

  • Expected review or deletion date

I recommend keeping passwords out of an unsecured inventory and recording where authorized access is managed instead.

Then I suggest asking seven questions about each application.

1. Is This Application Required and Approved?

It helps to determine whether the application is:

  • Required by the school or district

  • Approved for classroom use

  • Chosen independently by a teacher

  • Used by a parent organization

  • Operated by an athletic or extracurricular program

  • Suggested but optional

  • Downloaded independently by the child

“School-related” does not always mean “district-managed.”

If the application is required, you can ask where the school publishes information about approved educational technology and data practices. If it is optional, consider whether the benefit justifies creating another account.

The Department of Education recommends that teachers confirm whether online services are approved by their school or district before using them with student information. Review the Department of Education’s educational-technology guidance (opens in a new tab).

2. What Information Does It Collect?

An application may collect more than a name and email address.

Possible information includes:

  • Birth date

  • School and grade

  • Photographs and videos

  • Assignments and performance

  • Attendance

  • Behavioral information

  • Disability or accommodation information

  • Health information

  • Messages

  • Voice recordings

  • Location

  • Device identifiers

  • Browsing or usage activity

  • Parent contact information

  • Payment information

I suggest reading the privacy notice with one practical objective: identifying what enters the system.

It is worth paying special attention when the application requests permissions for the camera, microphone, contacts, photographs, Bluetooth, or location.

3. What Educational Purpose Does the Information Serve?

The application should have a clear purpose.

Questions I suggest asking:

  • Why is this information necessary?

  • Which feature uses it?

  • Is the collection required or optional?

  • Can the feature function with less information?

  • Is the information used exclusively for education or school operations?

  • Is the child expected to create public content?

A request for information should be connected to a specific function, not accepted merely because the application requests it.

4. Who Can Access or Receive the Information?

It helps to identify whether information may be available to:

  • Teachers

  • School administrators

  • Other students

  • Other parents

  • District personnel

  • The technology provider

  • Subcontractors

  • Analytics providers

  • Advertising partners

  • The general public

A classroom photograph, team roster, or student profile may have very different visibility depending on the application’s settings.

You can ask who controls those settings and whether parents or students can change them.

5. Is the Information Used for Advertising or Profiling?

The FTC revised the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule in 2025, strengthening requirements involving children’s information, targeted advertising, third-party disclosures, and data retention. Review the FTC’s announcement of the COPPA amendments (opens in a new tab).

COPPA generally applies to operators of child-directed online services and certain other operators that knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. FERPA applies differently and governs education records maintained by covered schools and institutions.

The laws are not interchangeable, and not every school-related application is governed in exactly the same way.

Parents do not need to become privacy attorneys before the first day of school. They should be able to ask whether their child’s information is used for advertising, product development, profiling, or purposes unrelated to providing the requested service.

6. How Long Is the Information Retained?

Information should not remain online indefinitely simply because no one remembered to remove it.

Questions worth asking:

  • How long does the provider retain the information?

  • Can a parent request deletion?

  • Can the school request deletion?

  • Does deleting the application delete the account?

  • Are backups retained after deletion?

  • What happens to submitted assignments or media?

  • Is information anonymized or merely disconnected from the visible profile?

The FTC’s revised COPPA Rule requires covered operators to establish written data-retention policies and limits retaining children’s personal information to the period reasonably necessary for its intended purpose.

7. What Happens When the Child Leaves?

Children change:

  • Teachers

  • Classes

  • Schools

  • Districts

  • Teams

  • Programs

  • Devices

  • Email addresses

At the end of the relationship, I suggest finding out:

  • Whether the account closes automatically

  • Whether the family must request deletion

  • Whether files can be downloaded

  • Whether photographs remain visible

  • Whether the school retains the records

  • Whether the child can continue accessing the account

  • Whether a parent-owned account should be disconnected

One option is to add an end-of-year review date to your calendar rather than depending on remembering every application next June.

Understand Your FERPA Rights

FERPA generally gives parents of eligible K–12 students rights concerning access to education records, requests to amend inaccurate records, and some control over disclosure of personally identifiable information.

Those rights generally transfer to the student when the student turns 18 or enters a postsecondary institution at any age. Review the Department of Education’s FERPA guidance (opens in a new tab).

FERPA permits certain disclosures without individual consent, including disclosures to qualifying school officials performing legitimate educational functions. Specific requirements and exceptions can be complex.

If you have concerns about a particular application or disclosure, I suggest beginning with the school or district’s privacy contact. If you need legal advice, I recommend talking with a qualified attorney.

Create One Family Record

The purpose of the inventory is not to create fear around educational technology.

It is to create visibility.

A family should be able to determine:

  • Which applications are active

  • Why each application exists

  • Who created the account

  • How access is recovered

  • What information it contains

  • When it should be reviewed

  • What should happen when it is no longer needed

Keeping track of school applications is part of the invisible digital work of running a family. Once that work is documented, it becomes easier to review, share, and manage.

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