FERPA and ClassSense

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g, with regulations at 34 CFR Part 99) protects student education records at schools that receive federal funds. Two things trip teachers up. First, FERPA binds the school, not the app, so there is no official stamp a product can earn, and a badge claiming otherwise should make you ask questions. Second, a teacher cannot hand student records to a vendor just because the vendor says it is careful. The school needs a legal basis for the disclosure.

The basis most classroom tools rely on

The usual basis is the school official exception in 34 CFR 99.31(a)(1). A school may share records without parent consent with an outside party that performs a service the school would otherwise use its own employees for, provided the party:

• has a legitimate educational interest in the records;
• is under the school's direct control for how it uses and maintains them;
• uses them only for the purpose the disclosure was made, and does not redisclose them except as the regulations allow (34 CFR 99.33).

The school also states in its annual notification of FERPA rights who it treats as a school official. That notice is the district's job, not ours, but it is the first thing to check before a teacher adds any tool.

How ClassSense is set up

ClassSense is designed to operate as a service provider under the direction of the teacher or school. In practice:

• Use is limited to running the service. No advertising, no sale of data, no unrelated use. The adaptive engine builds a mastery profile for one purpose: choosing what a student practices next.
• The teacher holds the controls. Teachers create and delete classes and course materials. Students join with a class code the teacher issues, and parents link to one child with an invite code the teacher issues.
• Access is scoped by role. Teachers see their own classes, a parent sees only the linked child, and a student sees only themselves.
• Records can leave. A signed-in user can export their records as a JSON file and can delete their account. A school can also ask us by email for a copy of its data, and we complete deletion requests within 30 days.
• Outside services are disclosed. The data practices page lists who handles hosting, AI features and email, and what each touches. We keep that list in one place so it stays current.

How parent rights map onto it

Parents (or students at 18) have the right to inspect and review records, to request correction, and to consent before most disclosures. Those rights run through the school. Our part is making them possible: the parent portal shows a linked parent their own child's information, the export gives the school a copy, and a correction or deletion request that reaches us is something we act on.

What we have not done

• No third party has reviewed or certified our FERPA position. This page is our own description.
• We have not signed the industry privacy pledge for student data.
• We have not signed a district-specific data privacy agreement. We can discuss one; see what a data processing agreement looks like here.
• Our public documents say uploaded curriculum and student answers may be processed by an AI service to provide the features. If your policy forbids that, ClassSense is the wrong tool for you. The longer discussion is on student data and AI.

Questions to ask before adopting any tool

1. Is the vendor a school official under our annual notice, or do we need parent consent?
2. What exactly is collected, and is it the minimum the feature needs?
3. Who else receives it?
4. How do we get records out, and get them deleted?
5. What happens on a breach, and who tells whom?

Our answers are on the data practices page and in the privacy policy. If the two ever differ, the policy controls.

Common questions