Parents' Bill of Rights for Data Privacy and Security

In accord with Education Law §2-d and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), the District hereby establishes and adopts the following Parents’ Bill of Rights for Data Privacy and Security:

  1. A student’s personally identifiable information (PII) cannot be sold or released by the District for any commercial or marketing purposes.
  1. Parents have the right to inspect and review the complete contents of their child's education record including any student data stored or maintained by the District. This right of inspection is consistent with the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Board Policy. In addition to the right of inspection of the student’s educational record, Education Law §2-d provides a specific right for parents to inspect or receive copies of any data in the student’s educational record.
  1. View the rights of parents and students under FERPA. In addition to review, these rights include how to challenge the accuracy of the content of a student’s educational record.
  1. State and federal laws protect the confidentiality of PII, and safeguards associated with industry standards and best practices, including, but not limited to, encryption, firewalls, and password protection, must be in place when data is stored or transferred. The District is committed to implementing the aforementioned safeguards and adopting industry standards and best practices to insure the safety of the data it collects.
  1. A complete list of all student data elements collected by the State is available for public review at https://www.nysed.gov/data-privacy-security/student-data-inventory, or parents may obtain a copy of this list by writing to the Office of Information & Reporting Services, New York State Education Department, Room 863 EBA, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234.
  1. Parents have the right to file complaints with the District or with NYSED about possible privacy breaches of student data by the District’s third-party contractors or their employees, officers, or assignees.

Complaints regarding student data breaches filed with the District should be directed to Michael Gebo, Technology Coordinator, Lyme Central School District, PO Box 219, Chaumont, NY 13622, 315-649-2417, ext. 0.

Complaints to NYSED should be directed in writing to the Chief Privacy Officer, New York State Education Department, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12234, via email to Privacy@NYSED.gov, or by going to https://www.nysed.gov/data-privacy-security/parents-and-students-file-privacy-complaint.

  1. For purposes of further ensuring confidentiality and security of student data, as well as the security of personally-identifiable teacher or principal data, this Parents’ Bill of Rights and the following supplemental information shall be included in each contract that the District enters into with a third-party contractor with access to this information:
    1. the exclusive purposes for which the student, teacher or principal data, will be used;
    2. how the third party contractor will ensure that the subcontractors, persons or entities that the third party contractor will share the student data or teacher or principal data with, if any, will abide by data protection and security requirements;
    3. when the agreement with the third party contractor expires and what happens to the student data or teacher or principal data upon expiration of the agreement;
    4. if and how a parent, student, eligible student, teacher or principal may challenge the accuracy of the student, teacher or principal data that is collected; and
    5. where the student, teacher or principal data will be stored (described in such a manner as to protect data security), and the security protections taken to ensure such data will be protected, including whether such data will be encrypted.
  1. A parent, student, eligible student, teacher or principal may challenge the accuracy of the student’s data or principal or teacher data collected by the District by filing a written request with the Superintendent of Schools at the address noted above.
  1. All agreements with third party contractors who have been or are to be provided with confidential data subject to this Bill of Rights will insure that the subcontractors, persons or entities that the third party contractor will share the aforementioned data with, if any, will abide by data protection and security requirements.
  1. Where applicable… The District has entered into contracts with certain third party contractors who have been provided data regarding students, teachers, and/or principals. The information mandated by law about such contractors appears in an attachment to this Parents Bill of Rights.