91制片

Over the course of the summer, our advocacy team had engaged with the FTC and USED to raise concerns with the FTC鈥檚 recent settlement with EdModo, stemming from accusations EdModo unlawfully used children鈥檚 personal information for advertising. You can read more about the initial case in the . 91制片 reviewed the settlement and took no position on the case. In reviewing the decision, though, 91制片 was concerned to see the use of the words 鈥榮chool鈥� and 鈥榮chool representative鈥�. 

We were concerned with a specific provision in the settlement, one we thought was unintentional but would bring significant disruption to the nation鈥檚 schools: the settlement could lead companies to believe that they can no longer contract with local or state educational agencies for educational technology in schools without obtaining verifiable parental consent (VPC). The primary problem centers around the settlement鈥檚 new definitions of 鈥淪chool鈥� and 鈥淪chool Representative,鈥� which limit the parties that an operator can contract with for educational technology use in a school without obtaining VPC. As currently drafted, 鈥渟chool鈥� and 鈥渟chool representative鈥� are defined as 鈥渁n institutional day or residential school, including a public school, charter school, or private school, that provides elementary or secondary education, as determined by State law,鈥� and 鈥�...a School employee,鈥� respectively.  These terms are new and seemingly outside of and incongruent with long-established federal definitions for school and district. These new definitions will likely result in edtech companies incorrectly assuming that only individual schools鈥搉ot the local or state education agency鈥揷an provide school authorization. This represents a significant and likely very disruptive departure from the current interpretation of COPPA, since the COPPA FAQs reference school districts.

We met with both USED and FTC to express our concerns, and followed up with a letter to the FTC (Signed by eight national organizations) asking them to amend the order to expand the definition of 鈥淪chool鈥� to include LEAs and SEAs as defined by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 

The FTC responded to us earlier this week, declining to make any change (Read their letter). We take their assurances that school and school representative are intended to be inclusive of local education agencies, educational service agencies, and state educational agencies as it relates to their role in the edtech contracting process. We will keep a keen eye on the field to ensure there is not confusion stemming from these seemingly new terms, and that edtech procurement is not unnecessarily disrupted.