Winter 2021-2022      Volume 50, Number 1

Check This Out: SOPPA
By Marie Ann Donovan and Mary Yockey

Document: Column 

Introductory Paragraph:  If your library, technology, and administrative colleagues appeared bleary-eyed when school started this year, it probably was due in part to significant amendments to the Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA; Illinois 101st General Assembly, 2019). If you are not familiar with what this law covers or how its recent changes affect your everyday school practice, you will be soon enough. Unlike the previous version of SOPPA, Illinois now requires all student-interacting employees in public and private schools to assume certain responsibilities as they bring technologies into their classrooms, especially regarding how the technologies rely upon students’ personally identifying data to function. The authority and control students’ parents or guardians have over whether and how their children’s identifying information is collected and stored are greater than ever, thereby affecting the everyday choices we educators make in building our instructional repertoires. Given how complicated SOPPA is, and everyone’s role in enforcing it, we thought a brief primer would be of interest and use to our readers.

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.50.1.2021-2022.55

Page Numbers:   55-61