Privacy and Security of Student Data (Follow-Up of Audit of NY State Education Department)

Issued Date: September 26, 2024
Agency/Authority: State Education Department

Full Report (.pdf)

Objective

To determine the extent of implementation of the three recommendations included in our initial audit report, Privacy and Security of Student Data (Report 2021-S-29).

About the Program

The State Education Department (SED) is part of the University of the State of New York, one of the most complete, interconnected systems of educational services in the United States. SED administers school aid, regulates school operations, maintains a performance accountability system, oversees the licensing of numerous professions, certifies teachers, and administers a host of other educational programs. Its responsibilities include oversight of more than 700 school districts with 3.2 million students, 12 Regional Information Centers (RICs), and 37 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). The BOCES and RICs work to provide shared educational programs and services to schools throughout the State and host various schools’ student information systems and the student data reporting processes. SED is responsible for safeguarding its data and ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its systems.

SED is charged with the general management and supervision of all public school districts and all the educational work of the State. It is also responsible for ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations, including Section 2-d of the Education Law (Education Law §2-d) and Part 121 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education (Part 121), which was adopted in January 2020.

The objectives of our initial audit, issued on May 16, 2023, were to determine whether the State Education Department consistently follows all laws and regulations regarding the safety and privacy of students’ data and is monitoring New York State school districts to ensure they are complying with the legislation and regulations that govern data privacy and security. The audit covered the period from March 2020 through November 2022. Overall, the audit found that SED did not fully comply with its policies related to information security and data privacy, including completing the data classification for all types of information that it creates, collects, processes, or stores, some of which contain students’ personally identifiable information. Additionally, SED didn’t provide sufficient oversight of school districts to ensure compliance with key requirements of Part 121, such as security policies, incident reporting, and the Parents’ Bill of Rights.

Key Findings

SED officials made significant progress in addressing the problems we identified in the initial audit report. Of the initial report’s three audit recommendations, two were implemented and one was partially implemented.