Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the nation’s largest districts, should make several changes to safeguard student privacy, according to legal experts who investigated the recent accidental release of sensitive, confidential records on more than 35,000 students. She discovered later that the information she copied and downloaded onto thumb drives included private information on thousands of other students. The disclosure was just the latest in a series of student privacy incidents within the 178,000-student district in recent years. In October, following a previous complaint, the state said the district had assured officials that staff members would receive training on student privacy. But Oettinger and other critics argue the district should be able to secure student privacy given the millions of dollars it spends on legal fees.

Source: Washington Post December 22, 2023 06:34 UTC