Procurement asks every vendor the same question: are you FERPA compliant? For a classroom walkthrough tool the honest answer has two parts. FERPA protects student education records, and Education Walkthrough does not hold any. And we still treat your data to the standard FERPA expects, because districts need to be able to say so in writing.
Why FERPA’s student-record rules are not triggered
- No student records. Walkthroughs document a teacher’s instructional practice: what the observer saw, rated, and commented on. No student names, IDs, grades, or performance data are collected, see What Data Does Education Walkthrough Collect?.
- Students are not users. There are no student accounts and no student-facing screens, see COPPA and Student Data.
- Teacher data is personnel data, not an education record. It belongs to the institution and is handled under your district’s own policies for staff evaluation and observation.
How we handle your data anyway
- Your district controls it. The institution owns its observation data. It can export it and can direct us to delete it.
- Use is limited to the service. We use your data to run Education Walkthrough for you. No selling, no advertising, no secondary use.
- Access is limited. Internal access is restricted to staff with a legitimate need, on a least-privilege basis, logged and reviewed.
- Infrastructure under a signed DPA. We host on Google Cloud in the United States under Google’s data processing agreement, see Data Security Overview.
Agreements we sign
We sign district data privacy agreements. We have executed state-specific agreements including the New York Education Law 2-d rider, the Illinois National Data Privacy Agreement, and the California NDPA, and we can work from your district’s standard DPA. submit a support ticket with the agreement and the district name.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What if an observer types a student’s name into a comment?
A: The product does not ask for it and we recommend observers keep comments about instruction, not individual students. If it happens, the data stays inside your district’s walkthrough records under the same access controls, and your admins can edit or delete the walkthrough.
Q: Do classroom photos count?
A: Photos are optional and taken by the observer. Keep students out of frame, in line with your district’s photo policy. Photos stay attached to the walkthrough and are covered by the same ownership and deletion rules.
Q: Can you provide this in writing for our board?
A: Yes. Request our Data Security and Privacy Plan and a signed DPA from a support ticket.
Q: What about state student privacy laws like SOPPA?
A: Because no student data is collected, those laws’ student-data provisions are not triggered. We will still sign the state agreement your district requires.