This is a great question that made me go back to our own policies and guidelines.
Within our (MKA) overall Personnel Manual, the confidentiality of student PII is mentioned several times. There is also a specific section on student records. This is part of the overall manual and something all employees must sign off on as having read and will abide by.
We have the following statements:
- MKA employees should be careful about confidentiality and should not discuss one student with another student or with other parents. All student records and personal information about students must remain strictly confidential.
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Employees must exercise good judgment by maintaining confidentiality about school matters that should not be shared with the public.
- Unauthorized disclosure of confidential information may be a cause of discipline.
- An employee may be terminated during the term of a contract for reasons including, but not limited to, failure to perform regular and extracurricular duties or other assigned duties in accordance with the standards of the school; disregard of safety precautions; careless use of school equipment; failure to abide by school policy; failure to abide by federal, state or local laws, or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information or dishonesty.
- CONFIDENTIALITY OF STUDENT RECORDS
It is very important that student privacy and the confidentiality of student educational and medical records be carefully protected. All records must remain on campus. Teachers must not discuss one student with another student or with parents. Pupil records of all kinds, including, but not limited to, permanent student files, teacher grade records and medical records, must be maintained in strict confidence. Where a child is being treated for substance abuse or undergoing counseling, strict confidentiality must be maintained. It is also important that students who are photographed for public relations purposes not be identified by name unless the express written permission of the parent is obtained.
- Accordingly, the following are examples of social media behavior, whether for personal use or in a professional capacity, are prohibited:
• Posting or commenting in a way that is vulgar, obscene, threatening, harassing or discriminatory, especially if such comments have the ability to affect the MKA school environment
• Disclosingproprietaryorconfidentialinformation
• "Friending"or"following"students,assetforthbelow.
- Any student work, files, grades and similar documentation should be destroyed in a confidential manner, preferably by shredding.
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William Stites
Montclair Kimberley Academy
Montclair NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-27-2023 09:26 AM
From: Karie Hayes
Subject: Confidentiality Statement
Does your school require faulty to sign a confidentiality statement when given personal identifiable information about students and families?
#CybersafetyandDataSecurity
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Karie Hayes
The Wheeler School
Providence RI
kariehayes@wheelerschool.org
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