Is it safe to type student names into a free website?
Only if your district has approved the site. Student names, especially next to grades, levels or notes, are information your school is responsible for protecting, and federal guidance says decisions about which online services may collect students' information are best made by the school or district. When a tool isn't approved, use one that doesn't need student names at all, or write the names in by hand after you print.
Asked by teachers, answered by Peabody's editors. Checked .
Two federal laws shape this. FERPA covers students' education records. COPPA covers commercial websites and apps that collect personal information from children under 13. Your district turns them, and your state's own laws, into rules for your school. Peabody's student data privacy guide explains each in plain words. It is general information, not legal advice.
A free site is not automatically a problem, and a paid one is not automatically safe. What matters is what the site collects, where it keeps it and what it does with it, and that is what your district checks before it approves a tool.
How Peabody Teach handles it
- The quiz and exit ticket makers remind you to keep students' names out of what you type, and they, the cloze maker and the rubric maker keep what you type in your browser.
- The conference form's notes stay in that browser tab only and are gone when you close it. The form has blank lines for the student's name, to fill in on paper.
- When you press Print on a Teach maker, the page counts the print with two words: which tool and which layout. No title, question, text or name goes with it.
Even so, follow your district's list. If Peabody Teach isn't on it and you want to use it, the privacy guide has words you can use to ask your technology coordinator.
Tools that help
- Student data privacy for teachers: FERPA, COPPA and PPRA in plain words, and what to ask before trying a new app.
- Parent-teacher conference form: Notes that stay in the tab; names written on paper.
- Quiz maker: Built in your browser; nothing about students is needed.