Professor Elana Zeide's article, "Student Privacy at 50: A Half-Century of Neglect" has been accepted by the George Washington Law Review. Read the abstract below.
Student privacy law does not actually protect students’ privacy. As federal statutes like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) mark their fiftieth anniversary, they prove inadequate in an era of technology-mediated and data-driven education. However, student privacy laws are not just outdated, but reflect a fundamental misalignment of priorities that scholars rarely question.
This Article employs a triadic framework of parent-, school-, and student-centric paradigms to surface the normative principles underlying information governance in education. This analysis clarifies the values that shape this undertheorized area of law, revealing that “student” privacy law privileges parents’ and schools’ interests—neglecting the students that it purports to protect.
This Article then begins the necessary work of reconceptualizing the role and function of student-protective privacy in protecting students’ privacy, autonomy, and well-being. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship, it proposes core principles for a student-centric paradigm to genuinely serve students’ interests and developmental needs. The time has come to place students at the center where they belong—to put the “student” back into student privacy.
