COPPA Compliancy

Our district curriculum resources utilize a variety of online tools, services, and applications. Although these tools/services/applications are widely used by the education community and support use in PK-12 schools, their Terms of Service and Privacy Policies state that schools obtain explicit parental permission to use them.

Under federal law entitled the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), these tools must provide parental notification and obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under the age of 13. For more information on COPPA, please visit:  http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/coppafaqs.shtm.

The law permits schools to consent to the collection of personal information on behalf of all of its students strictly for educational purposes, thereby eliminating the need for individual parental consent given directly to the tool/service/application operator/developer.  Personal information is limited to just what is necessary to use the tool. A limited selection of these digital resources also requires parental notification for students 13 and older.

Please understand that as Johnston Community School District continues with integrated technology as part of your student’s education, the need for such information and permission is necessary to utilize various digital resources as part of the classroom instruction and learning.