Before School Starts, Ask How Your Child’s Apps Were Vetted

# Before School Starts, Ask How Your Child’s Apps Were Vetted

When a school or program tells a family to download an app, the request can look routine. The logo is familiar. The teacher uses it. The device already has the link.

Approval is not the same as understanding.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office is putting student-privacy and educational-technology vetting on the August calendar. Its August 12 webinar covers FERPA basics and how to assess online educational technology for privacy protections and general FERPA compliance. Parents do not need to become privacy lawyers to ask better questions before the year starts.

Start with the app list. Write down every platform your child is expected to use for assignments, communication, attendance, testing, behavior tracking, or enrichment. Then ask:

What information does the app collect? A tool may need a name and class, or it may request a profile, voice recording, location, contacts, photos, or behavioral data. The difference matters.

Who can see the information? Ask whether access is limited to the teacher and student, or whether a vendor, subcontractor, advertising partner, or outside service can receive it.

How long does the information stay? A school year is different from an indefinite account. Ask what happens when your child changes classes, leaves the school, or stops using the product.

What does the tool do when it makes a mistake? This matters for automated scoring, writing feedback, identity checks, moderation, and dashboards that label student behavior. Ask who reviews an error and how a family can challenge it.

What is required and what is optional? A school may have a different process for a required instructional tool than for a social or convenience feature. A child should not have to share more information than the learning task requires.

Also ask what happens when the app connects to another service. A reading platform may send data to a testing system. A video tool may create an account through a learning-management system. A single login can create a larger data trail than the original assignment suggests. The school may have a vendor agreement, a consent process, or a technical safeguard in place. Parents should be able to explain which one applies.

Parents can send these questions in a short email: “What student data does this app collect, who receives it, how long is it retained, what part is required, and how can we request correction or deletion?” Keep the response with the school handbook and device agreement.

This conversation is useful even for homeschool families. Co-ops, tutoring programs, online courses, and microschools also choose platforms. A polished dashboard can still be a poor fit if the adults cannot explain its data practices.

If a program cannot answer every question immediately, ask who can. A useful response might include a privacy notice, a vendor contract summary, or a contact at the school. “We have always used it” is not an explanation of data collection, retention, or access.

Before the first assignment, know which tools are in the week and what each tool is allowed to do. The best app is not the one with the most features. It is the one whose purpose, limits, and data trail the adults can describe.