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FERPA, COPPA och Student Privacy med AI
FERPA and COPPA are the two main US federal laws that apply when a teacher puts student work, names or records into an AI tool: FERPA controls when schools may disclose information from education records, and COPPA limits how commercial online services collect personal information from children under 13.
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Översikt
Knowing how each one applies lets educators use AI without exposing students, or their schools, to privacy harms.
Djupdykning
FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, applies to schools and colleges that receive US Department of Education funding. It gives parents rights over their children's education records, meaning records directly related to a student and maintained by the school. Those rights transfer to the student at age 18 or on entering postsecondary education. As a general rule, a school needs written consent before disclosing personally identifiable information from those records. The exception that matters most for AI is the school official exception. A school may share records with an outside vendor that performs a service the school would otherwise do itself, has a legitimate educational interest, is under the school's direct control regarding use and maintenance of the data, and does not re-disclose it. That control is normally established through a contract or data privacy agreement. A teacher who signs up for a free chatbot under personal terms of service and pastes in graded work with names has created no such control. COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. It covers operators of commercial websites and online services directed at children under 13, or that knowingly collect personal information from them, and requires verifiable parental consent. FTC guidance lets a school consent on parents' behalf, but only for the educational purpose, not the vendor's commercial purposes such as advertising. The FTC finalized updates to the COPPA Rule in 2025. Common misconceptions: FERPA does not ban AI tools; it governs disclosure. Removing names is not always enough, because detailed stories about a student's family can still identify them. A vendor calling itself 'FERPA compliant' settles little, since compliance is the school's obligation and depends on the agreement. States add their own laws, such as California's SOPIPA. FERPA is enforced by the Department's Student Privacy Policy Office, and individuals cannot sue a school directly under FERPA.
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The Future of FERPA, COPPA and Student Privacy with AI
Expect more schools to route AI use through licensed education versions of tools rather than consumer accounts, because a contract is what turns a vendor into a school official under FERPA. State student-privacy laws continue to evolve, and the updated COPPA Rule raises expectations for how children's data is retained and shared. Federal regulators could issue further guidance specific to AI, but the core questions are unlikely to change: who receives student data, under whose control, for what purpose, and for how long. Teachers who build the habit of de-identifying prompts now will be prepared regardless of how the rules shift.
Verklig implementering
A high school English teacher wants AI feedback on 30 essays. Instead of pasting them with names into a free consumer chatbot under her personal account, she uses the district-licensed tool covered by a signed data privacy agreement, and removes names and ID numbers anyway.
A district technology director reviews an AI tutoring vendor's contract and requires that student prompts are not used to train models, that data is deleted on request, and that the vendor names every subprocessor, including the underlying model provider.
A fifth-grade teacher wants her class to use an AI writing app. Because the students are under 13, COPPA applies; under FTC guidance the school can consent in place of parents only if the vendor uses the data for the classroom purpose and not for advertising.
A counselor is tempted to paste a student's IEP notes into a chatbot to draft a letter home. She recognizes those notes as a sensitive education record and instead writes the prompt with generic placeholders like 'Student A' and no identifying details.
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Vanliga frågor
What is FERPA, COPPA and Student Privacy with AI?
FERPA and COPPA are the two main US federal laws that apply when a teacher puts student work, names or records into an AI tool: FERPA controls when schools may disclose information from education records, and COPPA limits how commercial online services collect personal information from children under 13. Knowing how each one applies lets educators use AI without exposing students, or their schools, to privacy harms.
Vilket villkor måste en extern AI-leverantör uppfylla enligt FERPA:s officiella undantag för skolan?
Undantaget kräver att leverantören utför en institutionell tjänst, har ett legitimt utbildningsintresse, stannar under skolans direkta kontroll över uppgifterna och inte avslöjar dem igen. Ett kontrakt fastställer vanligtvis den kontrollen.
COPPA:s samtyckeskrav gäller för personuppgifter som samlas in från barn i vilken ålder?
COPPA omfattar kommersiella operatörer riktade mot barn under 13 år eller som medvetet samlar in data från dem.
Vilken myndighet upprätthåller COPPA?
COPPA upprätthålls av FTC, medan FERPA upprätthålls av Department of Educations Student Privacy Policy Office.
När överförs FERPA-rättigheterna från föräldrarna till studenten?
En student som fyller 18 år eller går på en eftergymnasial institution blir en "berättigad student" och innehar FERPA-rättigheterna.
Varför kan det fortfarande vara identifierbart att ta bort elevernas namn från en uppsats?
FERPAs definition av PII inkluderar indirekta identifierare och information som kan kopplas till en student, såsom en sällsynt diagnos eller en namngiven familjehändelse.
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