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My oldest son is starting Kindergarten in under two weeks. I just sent an e-mail to the district under New York's Parents' Bill of Rights For Data Privacy and Security requesting information about how they store student data and give access to third parties. I also provided them a link to the EFF's research on student privacy: https://www.eff.org/issues/student-privacy/
I encourage anyone else with children to contact their districts as well. Not all states have privacy laws like NY's, but worst case, you can have a constructive discussion with the district, and file FOIA requests if need be.
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- mcscx repeated this.
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So one day after I send the e-mail, I receive a letter in the mail from the district, just introducing my child's teacher and describing some accomplishments/goals for the district, K-12. One of the items: achieving their goal of 1:1 pairing of students to devices, iPads and Google Chromebooks.
Uh, _exactly_ the problem that the EFF link describes.
I'm going to be having some difficult conversations that I really didn't want to be having. I have other shit to do, but this is too important. I wonder how many years it's going to take for any sort of progress on this front.
Oh, and great way to waste my taxpayer dollars paying for this crap.
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I got a fairly prompt reply from the district. They offered to meet with me: I'm setting up a date to meet with three of the Assistant Superintendents to discuss these issues.
I can't yet say how the meeting will go, but so far, I'm very happy with how easy it is for a parent to meet with the district. That is transparency and integrity that isn't seen often enough today. And going (almost) right to the top means that this discussion has the opportunity to legitimately (a) result in useful information and (b) hopefully direct actual change.
This is also the first time I've focused my activism on my own town/city. Hopefully I can do so more frequently---schools are a great way to get involved in the community.