Liberal Arts Colleges’ Student Admission Files Hacked
On Thursday March 7, the same week that The Wall Street Journal reported on Chinese hackers targeting universities in order to obtain access to classified military technology, Inside Higher Ed reported that applicants at three liberal arts colleges had received anonymous notes offering them the chance to buy their complete […]
Universities Targeted by Chinese Hackers for Military Technology
On Tuesday, March 4, The Wall Street Journal reported that more than two dozen universities in the U.S., Canada and Southeast Asia had been targeted by Chinese hackers. In its report, The Wall Street Journal cited research from iDefense, a cybersecurity intelligence unit of Accenture Security, indicating that the University of […]
New FERPA Guidance on Permitted Disclosures Necessary to Protect Health or Safety
By Sheila Sokolowski and Linh Nguyen The U.S. Department of Education through the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (“PTAC”)—an online resource on data privacy, confidentiality, and security practices for education stakeholders—recently issued a set of frequently asked questions (“FAQs”) on the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) […]
President Trump Proposes Fiscal Year 2020 Budget
On Monday afternoon, the Trump Administration released its proposal for the federal budget. Specific to the U.S. Department of Education, the fiscal 2020 budget decreases funding by about $8.5 billion while maintaining level funding for the Office for Civil Rights. Details of the full budget request are available here. In […]
Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place – California’s “Fair Pay to Play” Act
The amateurism rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) – the governing body of intercollegiate athletics – prohibit student-athletes from receiving payments for endorsements or otherwise profiting from the use of their name, image or likeness (“NIL”). Indeed, if an NCAA Division I or II athlete is paid for […]
Illinois Privacy Law Does Not Require Actual Harm
On January 25, 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a person whose rights under the Biometric Information and Privacy Act (“BIPA”) (740 ILCS 14/1) are violated is “aggrieved” and is not required to show that the violation caused actual harm in order to bring an action seeking damages and/or […]
SUPREME COURT SCHEDULED TO REEVALUATE HOW AGENCIES INTERPRET THEIR OWN REGULATIONS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR TITLE IX (KISOR V. WILKIE)
The Supreme Court’s decision to grant review in Kisor v. Wilkie may have major implications for the Department of Education’s implementation and enforcement of its civil rights regulations. Kisor v. Wilkie seeks to challenge the Court’s long-standing precedent of granting deference to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of their own regulations, commonly […]
Let’s Get into the Regs! Key Highlights from the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee on Accreditation and Innovation, Session 1, Day 2
While much of the D.C.-area got to work clearing snowfall from a weekend winter storm, Committee Members on the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) Federal Negotiated Rulemaking Committee on Accreditation and Innovation (the “Committee”) got to work reviewing and, oftentimes challenging, proposals and recommendations to the Department’s draft regulatory […]
Slippery Slope: The Subcommittee on Distance Learning and Educational Innovation and Fear of the “Race to the Bottom” in Accreditation Standards
The Department of Education (“Department”) conducted its first negotiated rulemaking session on January 14-18, 2019. The Committee on Accreditation and Innovation (“Main Committee”) met on January 14th and 15th. The Subcommittee on Distance Learning and Educational Innovation (“Subcommittee”) met on January 16th and 17th with the goal of reviewing certain […]
Charter Schools in Puerto Rico
On March 30th, 2018, the Government of Puerto Rico enacted Law Num. 85-2018, known as the Puerto Rico Education Reform Law (the “Law”). The Law is comprehensive in nature, and designed to loosen many of the bureaucratic ills that have stymied the island’s public education system for many years. It […]