The Power of Voice: From Parent Concern to Practice

The Champlain Valley School District has a story to tell, one that describes how speaking up can bring about change. The spark was lit by one parent sharing her voice and asking questions. 

In the fall of 2017, a parent of a CVU student came to a School Board meeting. That parent had recently filled out forms online for her child to participate in school activities and for the health office. After submitting the forms, the parent wondered what just happened to their personal family information. Who had access to it and what will they do with it? She raised these concerns to the School Board. She then went on to share her concerns at Vermont’s Agency of Education. They were good questions and she had a valid point. What did we know about what that website was going to do with personal family data? 

A group within the district began examining not only that website, but all of the websites and online tools that are in use. What were their Terms of Service? What did they say in the Privacy Policy? That’s the small print that most people don’t read. In fact, many of us check the box to say we agree to the Terms of Service without actually reading it. The district took a close look at all of them for the various tools in use in the district. 

From there, the Director of Network Services, Mike Kanfer, met with all of the district’s Digital Learning Leaders. A Request for Technology process was put in place for all adults in the district to use. When educators wanted to use a new digital tool or resource, they submitted an online form. The team met weekly to review requests and then review privacy policies and terms of service on behalf of the educators making the requests. It was time-consuming at first, as not only was the team looking at new requests, but also reviewing online tools that were currently in use. There are many digital tools in use in the district’s schools and classrooms and the list changed every day. It also took time and energy to help educators know about this process and to actually follow it. 

At the same time this was happening, a few other events were taking place. The big security breaches with Facebook, major retailers, and other sites became public. Everyone grew concerned about their private information. And rightly so. The focus on keeping private information private was not an abstract idea anymore. 

During the summer of 2018, Vermont’s Agency of Education joined a consortium focused on student data privacy. This grew out of work initiated by the Cambridge, Massachusetts Public Schools and has since spread to 20 other states in addition to Vermont. The Student Data Privacy Consortium has developed and shared a consistent privacy agreement with online sites and vendors. Now, instead of our state and school district following their terms of service, they agree to ours.

Since then, the Champlain Valley School District has collected signed agreements from more than 30 vendors and plans to add to that list in the coming months. A list of those vendors may be viewed here but know that it will continue to grow. Mike Kanfer and Bonnie Birdsall, Director of Digital Learning & Communication for CVSD, met with faculty in all of our buildings to ensure that everyone knows about the Request for Technology process and the Student Data Privacy Consortium. As of the start of the 2019-2020 school year, CVSD will begin the shift to work only with vendors who have signed the Vermont privacy agreement.

One example of this work in action is with a company called Informed K12. This company will support the district’s efforts to make more efficient the process families use for sharing annual student information, health information, and permissions with their schools. In the past, most of the district’s schools mailed home a packet of papers for families to fill out and return to the schools. Ensuring that everyone completed and returned those forms in a timely manner was challenging. That also meant hours of manual data entry for the administrative assistants. This year, the district will work with Informed K12 to streamline the process. In August, families will receive an email with links to fill out the various forms online. The Shelburne Community School has been doing this for a few years and is helping the other district schools get on board. Informed K12 was one of the first companies to sign a privacy agreement with the district.

This is great progress toward keeping student, family, and educator data safe and secure. Transitioning to this new process and obtaining signed agreements will take time, but the district is confident that this is a move in the right direction. The Champlain Valley School District thanks the parent who spoke at a School Board meeting for getting it started.

We invite all community members to attend CVSD School Board meetings and share your voice. They take place on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, excluding December and January. (budget meetings) 

All meetings are held at CVU at 6:00 pm. Check the district’s website and specifically, the School Board’s page for more detailed information.


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