Datos de estudiantes (FERPA)

HubiCare's role

When a public or charter school uses HubiCare, the school is the owner of its education records and HubiCare is a service provider acting under the school's direct control. HubiCare uses the records only for the purposes the school's contract and data processing agreement allow.

FERPA: the school official exception

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, 20 U.S.C. 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) lets a school share education records without parental consent with a contractor that performs a service the school would otherwise do itself, as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest (34 CFR 99.31(a)(1)(i)(B)). To qualify, HubiCare:

• Performs attendance, records, communication and billing functions the school would otherwise perform with its own staff.
• Is under the school's direct control about the use and maintenance of the records.
• Uses the records only for the purposes authorized by the school.
• Does not re-disclose records except as the school directs or as FERPA allows.
• Keeps a log, available to the school, of every change to records, every export, and who opened a child's health or custody details from the child's page.

Directory information

HubiCare does not designate or publish directory information. Whether a student's name or photo counts as directory information is the school's decision under its own FERPA notice. Under Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. 13.32, subd. 5), a student's or parent's home address, phone number, email or other personal contact information cannot be directory information. HubiCare treats all contact information as private.

Parents' rights to inspect and amend

Parents, and students 18 or older, have the right to inspect and review education records and to ask that inaccurate or misleading records be amended (34 CFR 99.10, 99.20). HubiCare supports the school in meeting these rights: the school can download a child's record from the child's page and every other record from its full export, every change is audited with the before and after (the school sees a change history and can ask HubiCare for the full log for its account), and corrections can be made by the school at any time. Requests go to the school, which has 45 days under FERPA.

No sale, no targeted advertising

• HubiCare does not sell student data and never will.
• HubiCare does not use student data for targeted advertising or for any commercial purpose other than providing the service to the school.
• HubiCare does not build a profile of a student except for the school's own educational purpose.
• De-identified, aggregate information may be used only to maintain and improve the service, as Minn. Stat. 13.32, subd. 13 allows.

Minnesota requirements for technology providers

Minnesota's Student Data Privacy Act (2022 Minn. Laws ch. 69; Minn. Stat. 13.32, subd. 13 and 14) sets rules for technology providers that work with public schools. Whether or not those rules apply to HubiCare under a particular school's contract, HubiCare follows them as follows:

• Educational data is not HubiCare's property (subd. 13(b)).
• If HubiCare discovers a breach of security, it gives the school all the information the school needs to meet its own notice duties under Minn. Stat. 13.055 (subd. 13(c)).
• Within 90 days after the contract ends, unless renewal is expected, HubiCare destroys or returns the educational data it holds for the school (subd. 13(d)).
• HubiCare does not sell, share or disseminate educational data, and does not use it for marketing or advertising (subd. 13(e), (f)).
• HubiCare's contract includes security safeguards, and only HubiCare staff whose duties require it, and who are authorized, may access the data (subd. 13(g)).
• Schools must tell parents and students within 30 days of the start of each school year which curriculum, testing or assessment technology providers have access to educational data, and let them inspect a complete copy of the contract (subd. 13(h), (i)). HubiCare gives schools a plain description of the data it holds to include in that notice.
• HubiCare does not access or monitor location, camera, microphone or keystrokes on any school-issued device (subd. 14). The door tablet uses its camera only when someone opens the QR scanner or, if the school turns on visitor photos, when a visitor takes a sign-in photo.

Minnesota Government Data Practices Act

Public schools in Minnesota are government entities under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minn. Stat. ch. 13). Educational data is private data on individuals (Minn. Stat. 13.32). Under Minn. Stat. 13.05, subd. 11, the school's contract makes HubiCare, as its contractor, subject to the same duties as the school for the data it handles under the contract, including that the data stays private, is used only for the contracted purpose, and that data subjects' access and challenge rights are honored through the school. The school's responsible authority decides on requests; HubiCare supplies the records the school needs.

Security and breach

See the Security overview. In short: encryption in transit and at rest for all data, a second, separate encryption of the most sensitive fields (medical conditions, immunization exemptions, custody and court-order notes), isolation between organizations in the database, two-step verification for administrators, a tamper-evident audit log and encrypted backups. Breach handling follows the Breach Response Plan in the data processing agreement.

Contact

HubiCare LLC, 2104 Park Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55404-6607, United States. privacy@hubicare.app.