Legal & Policy Basics for Teachers

Safe, Legal & Responsible Use

Legal & Policy Basics for Teachers

The three federal laws that govern student data — and the one rule that keeps you compliant when you use AI.

This video was created by AI.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Identify the three federal laws that protect student privacy
Define PII and recognize it in everyday classroom data
Explain why free or public AI tools cannot be used with student data
Apply two safe approaches for using AI in your practice without violating privacy law

Three Federal Laws That Protect Student Privacy

Law	What It Protects	Key Requirement
FERPA	Education records such as grades and attendance	Gives families rights to access and control those records
COPPA	Personal data collected from children under 13 by online services	Requires verifiable parental consent before data collection
PPRA	Students’ responses to sensitive surveys	Requires parental notice before students participate in covered surveys

What Is PII?

PII — personally identifiable information — is any detail that can identify a specific student. The moment data becomes identifiable, privacy law applies. Common examples include:

A student’s name
A student ID number
A photo of a student
A combination of smaller details that, taken together, point to one individual

Never Paste PII into a Public or Free AI Tool

Free and public AI vendors have no Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with your district, which means they are under no legal obligation to protect anything you enter. The moment you paste a student’s name, ID, or any identifying detail into a free chatbot, that information is no longer protected by FERPA or any district policy. Treat every free AI tool exactly as you would treat a public space — because that is precisely what it is.

Safe Practice

✓ Use a district-approved education AI account covered by a Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
✓ Strip every piece of PII from your prompt before using any public tool
✓ Verify that your vendor has a signed agreement obligating them to protect student data

Risky Practice

→ Pasting student names, IDs, or photos into free or public AI tools
→ Assuming lightly anonymized data is safe when small details can still re-identify a student
→ Using any AI tool that has no DPA with your district, regardless of how trustworthy it seems

Check Your Understanding

A quick check on the laws, PII, and safe paths before you move on.

Capstone Activity

Apply What You Learned

Think of a prompt you might realistically write about a student — asking an AI tool for feedback, a differentiation strategy, or a behavior plan. Now rewrite that prompt so it contains zero PII: no names, no student IDs, no identifying combinations. Share both versions below, then reflect: What did you have to change? What does that revision process reveal about how easily student data can slip into an AI prompt?

Your Response:

[Capstone Box]

Download the infographic

↓ Laws and Student Privacy

Curriki Launches Curriki AI and Grants Initiative to Support Revolutionary Learning Tools.

Curriki Launches Curriki AI and Grants Initiative to Support Revolutionary Learning Tools. Learn More