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Republican senator wants to ensure privacy of students online
KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: February 28, 2023
An Ohio lawmaker wants to ensure students engaged in online school work are not surveilled by technology providers or school officials while using school-issued devices.
Sen. Stephen Huffman, R-Tipp City, has introduced a bill in the Ohio Senate to limit the tracking of students via GPS, audio-visual receiving/transmitting/recording apps or any interactions with the device, including keystrokes and web-browsing activity.
Senate Bill 29 also would prohibit technology providers from using educational data to directly market products or services or advertise to a student.
Huffman said as remote learning became a common method of instruction for most public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, students’ use of school-issued laptops and tablets rose by twice the rate of pre-pandemic years.
“With this rapid expansion of school-issued devices, school districts across our state and nation began to install surveillance software to watch online interaction in an attempt to keep students on track with their studies,” Huffman told members of the Education Committee during a hearing this week. “However, these surveillance programs advertise that teachers and administrators have access to remote control of these devices, even after school has ended for the day. This means that they can take control of a student’s keyboard, or even access their cameras without the student knowing.”
According to the bill, a school district must give 72 hours’ notice to the student to whom the device was issued or that student’s parent when seeking to access the device.
Exceptions include non-commercial educational purposes for instruction, tech support or exam-proctoring by school district employees or a designated party; a judicial warrant; a report of missing or stolen device; an immediate threat to life or safety, compliance with a state or federal order; and for participation in a federal- or state-funded program.
Notice must include a written description of the interaction, identifying which features of the device were accessed and a description of the threat, if any, the bill stipulates.
Huffman said if such notice would pose an imminent threat to life or safety, notice must instead be given within 72 hours after the threat has ceased.
He was clear that school districts still maintain the right to block activity through the use of a firewall.
“Everyone deserves the right to privacy and students are no different,” he said. “Our children need privacy to express themselves, and it should be left to parents, not tech companies, to monitor our children’s online presence.”
According to SB 29, each school district is required annually to provide parents and students with notice that identifies each technology provider with access to education records, the education records affected by the contract and details of contract inspection and contact information.
The bill also requires parents and students must be given an opportunity to inspect a complete copy of any contract with a technology provider.
Four senators have offered co-sponsor support of the bill, which awaits further consideration by committee members.
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