As quoted in:
Schaffhauser, Dian. “The Problems with FERPA and COPPA in 21st Century Learning.” T.H.E. Journal. 5 December 2017.
Doug Levin, president of EdTech Strategies, suggested that the two agencies review their rules from the perspective of school student data security. Levin, who maintains the “K-12 Cyber Incident Map,” noted that both sets of regulations “presume that schools have the resources and knowledge to assess their own data security practices, to say nothing of their vendors,” yet the evidence says otherwise. First, the map itself has documented 279 incidents over the last two years, he pointed out; second, the poor findings in two separate state audits of district cybersecurity practices, one in Missouri and the other in Wyoming, offered “more evidence of a systematic lack of capacity.”
Levin, who attended the workshop as an audience member, was ” disappointed that the panelists and speakers were not particularly diverse. I fear that the experiences of poor, minority and rural students and families may be significantly different than what was expressed over the course of the day.”
For more information, note that a video archive of the joint U.S. Department of Education-Federal Trade Commission ‘Student Privacy and Ed Tech’ workshop is now available, as are the public comments submitted in response to the event announcement.