If your administrator is asking about SLP Toolkit compliance with NYS Ed Law 2-D, we've got you covered. You can find information about how to comply with the regulations below. Although we are well versed in these privacy rules, we are not legal experts (we stick to speech pathology and software). So you should consult your district about how to fully comply too.
1. The Details
If you're so inclined, you can read the details concerning the New York state privacy laws for student data, NYS Education Law 2-D. Here's a link to review it (click here), and some other guidance from NYS Education Department (click here).
2. Summary
There are a handful of things that Districts must do to comply with the NY laws. The parent bill of rights is among the most important, and deals with the following:
A student's personally identifiable information cannot be sold or released for any commercial purposes. This should be stated clearly in all materials dealing with student data privacy, and you'll find it in our SLP Toolkit policies too.
Parents have the right to inspect and review the complete contents of their child's education record. All parent access to student data in SLP Toolkit goes through the district.
State and federal laws protect the confidentiality of personally identifiable information, 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. SLP Toolkit uses industry-standard security to protect student data and ensure it is only accessed by the right people.
A complete list of all student data elements collected must be available for public review. You can find the data collected by SLP Toolkit in this article (click here).
Parents have the right to have complaints about possible breaches of student data addressed. Complaints should be directed to the district, and SLP Toolkit will assist by any means needed to resolve the matter.
Contracts with 3rd parties (like SLP Toolkit) must include 5 specific pieces of information, and are addressed in the following section.
3. SLP Toolkit Parent Bill Of Rights
Our contracts with school districts are in line with the requirements outlined by Ed Law 2-D, and you can generate a student data privacy agreement (see section 5 below). The specific items called out by the parent bill of rights are itemized below. You can also download a PDF version of our bill of rights (click here).
The exclusive purposes for which the student data or teacher or principal data will be used;
SLP Toolkit shall use student data only for the intended purposes; to assist faculty and staff in the efficient and effective management of students, including assessment, progress monitoring, and related data collection throughout the duration of their lEP's. Student data cannot be sold or released for any commercial purposes.
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;
SLP Toolkit shall enter into written agreements with all sub-processors performing functions pursuant to the purpose, whereby they agree to protect student data in a manner consistent with this Agreement.
When the agreement expires and what happens to the student data or
teacher or principal data upon expiration of the agreement;
The Organization has the ability to delete SLP and student data associated with their accounts at any time using the software or by special request, except in instances where data is stored as part of a disaster recovery system. This Agreement will remain in effect until SLP Toolkit no longer possesses the Organization’s student data.
If and how a parent, student, eligible student, teacher or principal may challenge the accuracy of the student data or teacher or principal data that is collected;
A parent, student, teacher, or principal may inspect the student’s education records owned by the Organization. Such inspection should occur only at the Organization’s principal place of business. Any request made directly to SLP Toolkit will be referred to the Organization. Furthermore, requests or complaints regarding the rights of parents or students to access records will also be referred to the Organization. SLP Toolkit will assist the Organization in making student data amendments where appropriate.
Where the student data or 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.
Both the Organization and SLP Toolkit acknowledge that state and federal laws exist to protect the confidentiality of student data. Both parties ensure that safeguards in line with industry standards and best practices, including encryption, firewalls, and password protection, are in place when student data is stored or transferred.
4. Additional Useful information
You can all the student data elements that we collect, along with the reason we collect them in the knowledge base article below. You can print out a copy or save a PDF for your records.
We use subcontractors to store and access student data. Their information and their policies concerning privacy and security are listed in the knowledge base article below.
SLP Toolkit complies with FERPA and more information can be found in the article below.
SLP Toolkit uses best practices to securely store and transmit data to the SLPs with authorized access. You can read more about how we keep your data safe in the article below.
5. Data Sharing & Privacy Agreement
If your district would like a signed data sharing & privacy agreement (DSPA), you can generate and download one using this form (click here).
Hopefully, this demystifies the New York state privacy laws and you can get on with helping your students. As always, let us know if there are any questions about this or other privacy standards by sending an email to privacy@slptoolkit.com or contacting support.