Overview
Outschool is excited to be working with schools and school districts across the United States to create additional educational experiences for young learners. When schools partner with Outschool, they may choose to fill an entire class with their students and/or allow their students to select classes from across the Outschool marketplace. At Outschool we generally refer to all who take classes on the platform as learners. At times we may refer to learners affiliated with a school or school district as “school learners” and those not affiliated with a school or school district as “non-school learners.”
Laws That Protect Students
School learners are protected by additional data security and privacy laws such as The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and similar state laws. FERPA gives parents of children under 18 the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to have the records amended and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from those education records.
You Are Required to Protect the Confidentiality of Student Data
When Outschool works with schools, the personal information provided about a student as well as any information collected during the delivery of Outschool’s services is considered to be “educational records” (aka “student data”) by FERPA. Student data includes but is not limited to: first and last name, home address, telephone number, email address, documents, photos, voice recordings, class videos, etc. Teachers are required to protect student data.
As a teacher, you will have access to student data for learners enrolled in your class(es). You should only access the student data for the time period needed to instruct that learner. As a reminder, all student data is confidential and may only be used by you to deliver or improve your curriculum. Disclosure, sharing or selling any student data is strictly prohibited.
You Must Ensure all Student Data Remains on the Outschool Platform
Teachers are required to teach all live classes on Zoom through the Outschool platform, and may not host Outschool classes on any platform outside of Outschool. All communication between teachers and parents and/or their students should occur through the Outschool platform. Using the Outschool platform helps ensure that proper data management, privacy, and security practices are followed.
You should avoid manipulating or migrating student data on the Outschool platform onto your computer. What that means is never downloading or taking screenshots of data, including but not limited to: classroom videos, user generated content (learner-created videos, images, text), or any information learners or parents share with you. Anything that you see on the Outschool platform must remain on the Outschool platform. We recognize that some classes may require learners to send digital assignments to you for assessment; in the case that you cannot complete an assessment within the system, you are required to ensure you do not retain any learner data for longer than your time teaching the learner. Should you have any physical documents or printouts that contain learner data, they must be destroyed when they are no longer needed to provide services to that student. Shredding is the preferred destruction method for physical documents.
You Must Use Appropriate Data Security Safeguards
Protect Your System: To ensure you and your system are protected, appropriate safeguards include: protecting your system with antivirus software, protecting your wifi network with a safe and secure password, and encrypting your hard drive.
Proper Account and Password Management: You are responsible for establishing safe and secure passwords, maintaining the confidentiality of your passwords, and updating passwords as needed to ensure your system and account is protected. Do not reuse your passwords. Password managers can also be a resource. You are expected to notify Outschool at safety@outschool.com of any unauthorized use of your password. If Outschool ever has reason to suspect that an account may have been compromised, Outschool will immediately disable the current password and request that you create a new one.
Reporting a Data Security Breach: If you suspect or know of a data security or privacy breach, you must report it to safety@outschool.com as soon as you become aware. Suspected breaches could include but are not limited to: Someone gaining unlawful access to your Outschool account, your email account associated with Outschool, your PayPal account used for Outschool payments, your passwords and/or password manager, your class recordings, and/or your computer; The inappropriate sharing of customer or learner data and/or seeing confidential information outside of the appropriate channels; Compromised passwords; or any other suspected security threat.
Please see “Learner Safety and Privacy: For Teachers” for additional information about protecting learner safety and privacy. You can always reach out to us with more specific questions.