What FERPA Means When Your School Uses AI

FERPA is the federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. In plain English: your school cannot share a student's records without permission, except in a few specific situations the law allows.

Now add AI to the picture. When a teacher pastes student essays into a free chatbot to grade faster, those essays may count as education records shared with an outside company. When an AI tutoring app collects names, emails, and learning histories, that data lives on servers your school doesn't control.

FERPA forces one uncomfortable question: who sees student data, why, and under what written agreement? If an AI vendor hasn't signed the kind of agreement that says "you act on our behalf and you won't use this data for anything else," your school has a gap.

You don't need to memorize the statute. Build three habits instead. Know what student data leaves your classroom. Know which vendors your school has actual agreements with. And never put an identifiable student's information into a tool your school hasn't vetted.

The technology is new. The principle is old: student information stays with the people responsible for the student.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.