Author name: Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance

USED Student Privacy Actions Timeline

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Student Privacy USED Student Privacy Actions Timeline This timeline chronicles major student privacy related announcements from and activities by the U.S. Department of Education (USED). By Morgan Sexton, Jess Arciniega, and Amelia Vance · September 2026 · 9 min read Last Updated: October 5, 2026 2025-03-27 U.S. Department of Education Launches Investigation into California Department of Education for Alleged FERPA Violations Tags: FERPA · Investigation opened · California SEA · State education agency (SEA) SPPO launched an investigation into the California Department of Education (CDE) for “allegedly abdicat[ing] the responsibilities FERPA imposes due to a new California state law [AB

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USED Ramps Up PPRA Enforcement

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Student Privacy USED Ramps Up PPRA Enforcement USED found a Massachusetts district violated the law and opened three new investigations. By Jess Arciniega, Amelia Vance, and Morgan Sexton · September 2026 · 9 min read Table of Contents PPRA OverviewBurlingtonWashington, Colorado & MinnesotaDOJ & USED collaborationWhat Comes Next? On July 28 and 29, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education’s (USED) Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) opened investigations into Bethel School District in Washington State, Denver Public Schools in Colorado, and the Minnesota Department of Education, for allegedly violating the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). USED also announced it had

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DOJ’s Role in FERPA Enforcement: What USED’s Interagency Agreements Do (and Don’t) Change

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Student Privacy · FERPA DOJ’s Role in FERPA Enforcement: What USED’s Interagency Agreements Do (and Don’t) Change A June 2026 interagency agreement gives DOJ’s Civil Rights Division a role in enforcing FERPA “in coordination with” USED. Here is what the agreement changes, what it doesn’t, and three student-privacy questions it raises. By Morgan Sexton, Amelia Vance, and Jess Arciniega · September 2026 Table of Contents 1 How will student privacy enforcement change?2 When will FERPA protections still apply?3 Will USED share student data with other agencies?What to watch next Over the past year, USED announced several Inter-Agency Agreements (IAAs) that

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COPPA 2.0 AINS Brings House Closer to Senate-Approved Language

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COPPA 2.0 AINS Brings House Closer to Senate-Approved Language March 27, 2026 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 On March 5, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a full committee markup that focused on child privacy and online safety legislation, advancing the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, Sammy’s Law, and App Store Accountability Act out of committee. But what didn’t happen at the markup may be an even bigger step towards strengthening protections for children online.  The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) was on the

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Feeding the Machine?: What the Updated COPPA Rule Says About Using Children’s Data to Train Algorithms

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Feeding the Machine?: What the Updated COPPA Rule Says About Using Children’s Data to Train Algorithms December 4, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 When your 8-year-old plays their favorite mobile game or uses an educational app to practice math, they’re not just learning or having fun: they’re also generating valuable data. Every click, swipe, and answer creates information about how children think, learn, and behave online. Until recently, many companies were operating under the belief that they could use this data to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems with few restrictions. The

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New COPPA Case: What a Recent FTC Amicus Brief Does–and Does Not–Change for Schools

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New COPPA Case: What a Recent FTC Amicus Brief Does–and Does Not–Change for Schools September 3, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 Introduction On August 13, the FTC filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit against edtech vendor IXL Learning (Shanahan v. IXL Learning Inc., 3:24-cv-02724, (N.D. Cal.)). Since then, there has been speculation that the Commission’s interpretations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), as outlined in the brief, somehow change existing COPPA obligations regarding schools and edtech vendors. This blog outlines exactly what this case is about, the FTC’s

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Senate Commerce Advances COPPA 2.0, With Notable Changes

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Senate Commerce Advances COPPA 2.0, With Notable Changes July 15, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance       CC BY-NC 4.0 On June 25th, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) was favorably reported out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Recap: What is COPPA 2.0?  COPPA 2.0 is a bill that seeks to update and strengthen safeguards in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law enacted in 1998 that regulates how commercial operators can collect personal information from children under 13 (see these resources for more

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Fixing FERPA: Adding Cybersecurity Requirements

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Fixing FERPA: Adding Cybersecurity Requirements July 3, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, and Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) governs how schools handle everything from report cards to sensitive psychological evaluations. Yet this cornerstone of student privacy law was written in 1974—nearly three decades before most Americans had ever heard of the internet, and long before anyone imagined that a single cyberattack could expose the intimate details of millions of students’ lives. The result? A massive gap between the digital threats students face and the legal protections designed to shield them. Today,

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Supreme Court Upholds Age Verification: A Game-Changer for Child Online Safety Laws

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Supreme Court Upholds Age Verification: A Game-Changer for Child Online Safety Laws July 1, 2025 Jessica Arciniega, Morgan Sexton, & Amelia Vance   CC BY-NC 4.0 Introduction Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, upholding Texas’s law requiring adult websites to verify users’ ages before allowing access. While this case specifically addressed pornographic content, the ruling’s implications likely extend far beyond adult websites—potentially reshaping how courts evaluate the dozens of state laws designed to protect children online that have repeatedly been blocked by federal judges over the past several years. TLDR:

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